Transformers Titan: New Developments
by kira444
Summary: Takes place between Volumes 2 and 3. In the aftermath of the headmaster war, Autobots, Decepticons and humans must adapt to the fallout they brought upon themselves as Terra changes the direction of the war in ways they never expected.
1. New Developments

Transformers Titan

New Developments

A week had passed since the end of what became known as the headmaster war. With the OZ invasion thwarted and their headmaster army deactivated, all that was left was the hard task of rebuilding. The combined assault of three airships and an army of mechanoids had seriously damaged the outside hull of the Ark, and the surrounding forest was burnt away by the wreckage of the two ships.

Ironhide also had to lead a recovery team to collect the bodies of the Sunstreaker clones and their dead headmasters, who all suffered a cardiac arrest from Darren severing the link they shared with Sunstreaker's head. There were 200 headmasters in all, only 150 remained before the link was cut. That was 150 human bodies they had to cremate. No one wanted to do the job, but it had to be done. As for the transectors, they could be used to repair Sunstreaker, who was still recovering from his ordeal.

"With all due respect, Prime, have you lost your damn mind?!"

Prowl's yell could be heard all over the second deck of the Ark, but Optimus remained impassive in the face of his tactician's fury. "I can assure you, Prowl that I am of a sound mind. My sanity has no impact on my decision."

"Prime, we can't just announce our presence to the world. We have enough to deal with Oz and this Skywatch outfit. The last thing we need is the entire world getting involved in our business and making an already complicated situation a nightmare." Prowl said.

Optimus calmly turned on his monitor, showing news reports of the Dynobots' rampage in Fallon. A switch of the channel showed another news report covering a battle between a Sunstreaker clone and three BuQue talos, with a following report covering the massive battle that went on in Epsilon Holdings. Prowl was quiet, knowing what Optimus wanted him to see, before the Prime switched his monitor off and stared Prowl in the eyes.

"Prowl, we can no longer rely on secrecy in this war. Oz's actions have forced us into the open and we need to make sure this comes out on our terms before the government comes to the wrong conclusion about us." Optimus said seriously. "If this goes against us, it will be the perfect opportunity for OZ to take advantage of the public and have all of humanity declaring war against us. We need to make a move before things get out of hand."

Prowl frowned and crossed his arms, not liking the decision, but seeing the logic in it. You can't hide a group of giant robot dinosaurs duking it out in the middle of a town, or an assault on the headquarters of a popular manufacturer. He was always one to follow protocol, but this issue required a more flexible way of dealing with things.

"How do you propose we do this?" Prowl asked. "I don't recall any of us having the President on speed dial."

"I'm…working on a plan. Right now, let's focus on the recovery of the scraps outside and the healing of our friends." Optimus said wearily.

Prowl nodded and left the room. Things were going to get more hectic around here, and Prowl knew he wasn't going to like any of it.

XXXXXX

"They're ready for you, sir." A secretary announced after opening the door.

"Thank you." Nervously straightening his blue service uniform, Colonel Walter Barnett was more than a little anxious. He had little knowledge of why he was at the Hexagon, lesser knowledge of why a senior official in Special Operations Command would want to see him in the first place. Nevertheless, orders were orders, and he quietly entered the office.

Waiting for him inside were two people; one familiar, one not the unfamiliar one was a young woman in thin-rimmed glasses, early thirties at oldest, chestnut hair carefully held in a tight bun, the black suit giving her an air of authority despite her youth. The more familiar person was a tall man with golden hair tinged with gray at the temples, his uniform denoting him as a lieutenant general in the Army and his black name badge lettered "Abernathy".

"Colonel Barnett, welcome." The general gestured to an empty chair. "At ease. I hope the flight over from Lockland wasn't too much trouble."

"Considering it was either a trip to Washington or a court-martial, I think I was better off coming, sir." The colonel nodded politely.

The general chuckled. "Good for both of us that you did." He indicated the suited woman as she rose to her feet. "This is Agent Lyn Graves with the NSA; she's our new liaison."

A hand was offered with a curt nod. "Colonel."

The general sat down, the agent and colonel following shortly. "With all due respect, sir, I'm a little surprised to be here. I'm with Intelligence-if you need information for a Special Forces operation, I'm sure it would be easier to simply get it from a report or my commanding officer." Barnett said.

Abernathy waved it off. "Unfortunately, a report or your commanding officer can't give us what you or your interests can. We couldn't give you the full information until you arrived, but by the end of this meeting, you should know exactly why you're here. I'm assuming you're aware of what happened in Fallon?"

"I assume you mean the sudden appearance of a giant robot T-rex. I've already been appraised, sir. The entire town was leveled by a chaotic battle between robotic dinosaurs and an out of control inferno, leaving most of the town in rubble and hundreds of people homeless. That's the story from what I heard before there was a communications blackout."

"The cover story is that those were experimental talos drones that went rogue and were hijacked by terrorists. We're lucky that cover story is still holding, because it wasn't a terrorist attack at all." Barnett looked at Graves with a raise eyebrow. "No one has taken credit for it, and it was sloppy in comparison; most attacks would hit places of major importance, with small devices meant to go after maximum civilian casualties. This was out of control, pure and simple, not done to instill terror, but merely to cause destruction at random." She handed him a file and as Barnett reviewed its contents, she continued, "Those images were taken from another incident. This one occurred over in the main headquarters of Epsilon Holdings two weeks ago. A large aircraft designated as a UFO by the Air Force was seen hovering over the facility before the fighting began. It was seen by numerous eyewitnesses, many of whom we've convinced to keep quiet. The FBI's already subpoenaed any recording devices they may have available, as well the main building's security footage, which was mostly erased from the hard drives. It showed a massive battle going on between giant humanoid robots."

Barnett pursed his lips. "Talos?"

"No, something more advanced. Based on the eyewitness accounts, these robots were fielding weapons more powerful than anything we currently have but within the realm of believability in several decades' time. Examining the damages left by the weapons shows that some of the damages were caused by some sort of high-powered laser weapon as the places where it struck were cut through with high heat and intensity. We've had a dozen people come forward so far to report seeing these things, not just in Delpoi, but also in Yuktobania, during the Brasnya incident. There were multiple mechanoids on the scene, but the sightings in Fallen and Tampa showed armies of identical robots combating the more differently shaped ones."

"How can any of this be happening under our noses and we're just finding this out?"

"This is where things get interesting." Graves said. "More fanciful reports say that the robot dinosaurs that appeared in Fallon could…change form. Their bodies transformed from the dinosaur forms you saw into humanoid robot forms. The car robots also displayed this ability, though personally, I think they're different in how they operate and fight."

"It should also be noted that these incidents have only been revealed to us in the months following the medium to heavy interference in radio and television signals throughout the state of Dakote on Friday, September 9 last year. In the following months, there have been sightings of giant robots fighting in various places around the world, though such incidents vary in terms of length and we're sure there's more to them that we're not seeing. Among those incidents was the attack on the military base in Zona Arida."

Barnett's expression darkened at the mention of that tragedy. So many brave men and women killed, and no one knew what caused it. It was all over the news and his department has been looking into the attack for months without any solid leads. "It'd be a stretch to say this was some mass hallucination, wouldn't it?"

"If it is, it's a damn consistent one." She smiled wryly. "Which bring us to you."

"Walter, you're one of the best that Air Force intelligence has to offer. You've seen action in Emmeria, the Middle East, and the Central Islands. Your recent service in Azadistan is only a sampling of what you can do. You've probably done more behind the scenes to save lives than anyone else, and you get results. Considering the possibility that we may be dealing with something not made by human hands, you seem the best choice. We need you to find out the details concerning these things, and evaluate if these beings are a threat."

"And what do we do if they are a threat?" Barnett asked, looking between the two. "No offense, sir, but if these beings have mastered matter transportation, energy weaponry and have immense physical power, I doubt we can defend against them, especially considering our military is currently engaged with one foreign conflict and another domestic threat."

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, colonel." Abernathy said and rose to his feet, the younger adults following. "Dismissed."

XXXXXX

Nightshade entered the medibay of the Nemesis on Decepticon Island, her expression as cold and hard as always. She hadn't been in a good mood lately, with the island's only beach being littered with the corpses of Barricade clones and their ship and base trashed…again. The damages incurred from the headmasters, as they would soon learn from in-depth examinations of the clones' bodies, were severe, not counting the storm brought about by the Zodiac Aquarius.

Then there was the matter with Starscream. The former Seeker commander was thrown in the brig, along with Skywarp and Thundercracker in a separate cell for going against orders and reviving the mech. Starscream didn't put up a fight; he actually turned himself in after the island was secure again. Nightshade couldn't read his expression, as for once, it was actually difficult to ascertain what he was thinking following his revival from stasis. She assumed he was far from happy, but so far he made no moves to lash out at Megatron for what he did. Megatron made it clear he was going to handle Starscream personally, while she would deal with Thundercracker and Skywarp.

'I know Skywarp was dumb enough to pull that with Starscream, but I never expected Thundercracker to risk it. He knows the consequences.' Nightshade thought. Thundercracker was always the loyal sort, though she knew his loyalties were always torn between Starscream's foolish Seeker patriotism and the greater Decepticon cause. Hopefully with Dreadwing at the helm, this split in loyalties would be remedied.

She found Knockout standing in front of the diagnostics screen monitoring the conditions of Soundwave, Ravage and Laserbeak, all three mechs having undergone intense physical examination by the medic. They got word from Soundwave after he and his proxies were aided by Sprawl of all people in reversing the virus placed on him by Bludgeon. He didn't go into details on how that happened, as he was exhausted and hovering on the edge of stasis lock.

"How are they, Knockout?" She asked the doctor as he checked on Soundwave's vitals. The spymaster had been sitting in the CR chamber recovering alongside his proxies, who were also recovering from their harrowing ordeal at the hands of the humans.

"They're all stable, but are suffering from various levels of energy deprivation. Whatever they went through must've put their bodies through the wringer." Knockout checked his datapad. "Ravage and Laserbeak, upon examination of their frames, show signs of their neural nets being tampered with and implanted with what I can only describe as primitive remote control interfaces."

"Remote as in…mind control?" Nightshade hissed.

"Possibly. Ravage was able to tell me that the humans who held him and Laserbeak captive implanted some master-slave system in his head to control them. Soundwave was doing everything he could to block the signal they were sending out." Knockout explained.

"Is it possible to track this signal back to its origin point?" She asked.

"Maybe, but it's been a while since we blocked the system. I wouldn't hold out hope for finding anything at the other end." He warned her.

"I'll be the judge of that." Nightshade said and gave the CR chambers one last look before marching back out the doors.

Something needed to be done. They couldn't just write off the humans as mere pests anymore. OZ had crossed a line after turning Barricade into their guinea pig and has proven their worth as serious threats after invading their own island. What happened to Ravage and Laserbeak must also be addressed, atop the concerns of repairing the ark and man base. Thankfully, they have much in the way of raw materials in the form of the headmasters that dared step onto their island.

XXXXXX

Walter Barnett sat aboard one of the Air Force's C-40B aircraft looking over the less-sensitive files given to him at the Haxagon. It was hard to believe that what he just learned was possible, but the evidence was all here. Humanity was no longer alone in the universe, and the aliens had come to them, in some form or another. There had been sightings of these mysterious robots all over the world to varying degrees, but Fallon and Tampa was the first time these beings had gone public. And he had a feeling it wasn't by choice.

Growing up, he dreamed of fighting aliens like his space heroes on tv. It was a common dream of any boy in that time, being some super strong space hero and defending the planet from alien invaders. His wife and son were huge sci-fi buffs compared to him, and every Friday night they would spend their time watching those alien invasion movies that involved the world uniting to defeat the extraterrestrial menace.

'It's a nice thought, but I doubt even an alien invasion could unite the world. If there's even a world left at the end of it all.' Walter thought with a sigh. 'I hope this doesn't end badly for us, because we're already stuck fighting terrorists in the Middle East and Karaba on our home soil. If they wanted to, they could just wait for us to blow ourselves up before reaping the spoils.'

"Excuse me, Colonel Barnett?"

He looked up to find himself staring into the face of a woman slightly younger than himself, with short brown hair and worn glasses over dark blue eyes, dressed rather casually for someone who was riding in a military aircraft. "I'm Veronica Howards, with Skywatch."

"Never heard of it."

"There's a reason for that. May I?" The colonel gestured to the seat opposite himself and the woman sat down. "Skywatch is a classified paramilitary agency independent of the Osean Army, convened in secret under President Hoover almost eighty years ago. Our mandate is to investigate, study, and if possible, combat non-terrestrial threats."

"Aliens." Barnett said, making sure to keep his voice low.

Veronica Howards knew she was playing with fire meeting the Air Force colonel like this, especially with Skywatch under the intense scrutiny it was getting right now, but she felt it was prudent to at least warn one member of the armed forces should anything truly catastrophic occur. One thing she could count on was that, contrast to Adams and Fredericks, Howards could negotiate things through with more finesse and a lower chance of having weapons being pulled out. Another plus was that the colonel had a flexible mind, thanks to his actions in dealing with espers, particularly Karaba. It had taken quick planning and luck to catch up with Barnett onto the plane bound for Dakote.

"Exactly. And despite what you might suspect, we actually have rather dull lives. Aside from the grossly exaggerated incident at Roswell, we've had little if any activity. That chanced last year with the radio disruptions in Dakote." She opened the case and turned it around to display the contents, using the case's lid as a shield against prying eyes and making sure to avoid having anything reflected against the window. "After the chaotic situation with the NBEs in Fallon and Tampa, I thought it necessary to at least warn someone in the armed forces about what we're dealing with here."

"NBE?" Barnett raised a brow. And people poked fun at the military's usage of acronyms.

"Non-Biological Extraterrestrial." Veronica's full lips seemed to twitch at the acronym, as if reading the colonel's thoughts. "Skywatch has learned that these aliens are entirely mechanical, and have been visiting Terra for quite some time."

Barnett pulled a few photographs from the case, and after studying them, his eyes went wide. "What…?"

"Those images were taken from security footage from a Skywatch base I was working at. It was attacked by hostile NBEs and most of the personnel on site were killed." Veronica's expression went dark as she remembered that horrific day. "That marked my first encounter with the aliens, and Skywatch officially got on the case of finding these beings before they could deal another blow to us."

She pointed to another photo of a bright red and orange robot grappling with a dark green robot that was much larger than it. "That was from a cave in Atilla, Elladas. I went with a strike team investigating sightings of NBEs in the countryside and we ran into four of them fighting in a cave, two on opposing sides."

She then showed him images taken from the massive robot brawl that occurred right in the middle of a battlefield in Brasnya between the two armies. Walter's eyes took in every detail he could, knowing that this was more than what he could ever hope for. "How did this escape our attention? Why wasn't this-"

"Skywatch has developed a bit of a no-interference policy in regards to these incidents. They seem to think that it's our sole duty to defend the planet from these beings, not anyone else. Such news that possibly could've avoided incidents like Fallon was kept secret from the greater military and governmental organizations." She looked bitterer as she talked about this. Walter couldn't help but think that she possibly had her fair share of arguments on this subject. "Honestly, it's a matter of pride than maintaining Skywatch's jurisdiction over these matters. There are other organizations all over the world just like ours, but we're the only ones better equipped to handle these beings."

"These…NBEs…they all look different. Have you ever gotten a glimpse of the same one?"

"Only the red one appeared in Brasyna and Atilla, but if you look closely, you'll see that some of them having matching symbols somewhere on their bodies. These aliens are factionalized, and they're at war…with our world as the battleground."

"How many are there?"

"We don't know for sure, but a rough estimate puts their total numbers at twenty or less." Veronica said. "If it weren't for the fact that they were fighting among themselves in these sightings, I'd suspect an invasion."

Barnett studied the young woman with skepticism. "Forgive my suspicions, Agent Howards, but there has to be a reason behind you being so candid with me. I'd think an organization like yours would want to combat these entities."

"You think we haven't?" Veronica said harshly and ripped a photo from the case. It was of Skywatch agents excavating the Dynobots. "We've dug up six NBEs trapped in the heart of an archeological sight, and two more from a volcano. Skywatch planned on using the first two, dubbed Seekers 1-2, to hunt down these elusive NBEs, but we lost them and they went rogue thanks to outside interference. Then we've awakened another one in response to Brasnya, who also went rogue, smashed his way out of the holding facility and vanished. I imagine you can guess which one that was?"

"The T-rex that appeared in the middle of Fallon?" Walter said.

"Correct. You'd think we'd learn, but Red was more concerned with obtaining an asset and set the others, designated Thunder Lizards 2-4 to capture him. They went rogue the same way the other three went as well, and Fallon was torched while an outside party just swooped in and tried to take them all out." Veronica looked positively livid right now. "And that lightshow in Tampa? We sent our last NBE prisoner equipped with a kill switch to neutralize the aliens there. Haven't seen him since things settled down and he's possibly still alive and free in the world. So yes, Colonel Barnett, we did try to combat these entities, and we've failed spectacularly. I'm done trying to convince those trigger happy morons to try another approach, and I hope you'll be able to do what we couldn't."

"That's…a lot of pent up aggression you have there." Barnett commented.

Veronica laughed and sagged back in her seat. "Our military is fighting two wars on two fronts, colonel; one in the Middle East, the other on the homefront. While there are elements in Skywatch and in similar organizations across the globe who would welcome the chance to capture or destroy an NBE, I'd sooner we'd avoid picking a fighting with potentially hostile alien lifeforms. And if they are factionalized, we may be able to negotiate with one or more groups."

She thumbed the picture of the red robot she encountered in that cave. "This one saved me and my team. Went out of his way to keep us safe and away from the fighting. If at least one of these dies is benevolent, then a diplomatic solution can be reached. And I know who can help you."

"There's more?"

Veronica smirked a bit and took out a photo of three children, two girls and one boy. "When our base was attacked, the security team had apprehended four children beforehand. These children know more than they seem, and I'm sure they've had contact with the NBEs. For the sake of privacy, I won't go into detail about their identities, but there is one girl I want you to meet. Her name is Gina Harkins, and she's the daughter of the famous Theodore Harkins of archaeological fame."

Barnett looked at the girl's picture, memorizing her face. Veronica shut her briefcase closed and leaned forward with an intense expression on her face. "Find this girl, see what she knows. There may be an alien war on our world, but can at least see if one side cares enough to leave us alive."

XXXXXX

"Don't think that swooping in to save the day during the OZ invasion changes anything." Megatron growled into Starscream's face.

"It never crossed my mind, Lord Megatron." Starscream said, not backing down.

It was a tense moment between the two Cons as they faced off in the brig, where Starscream was stashed down the hall from his two subordinates. Normally, Starscream would've thrown some witty remark at Megatron or something, but he knew that he was skating on thin ice at the moment.

"You tried to kill me." Megatron said. "Bury me alive, that was you plan, yes? You didn't even have the spine to kill me in person even when empowered by ore-13."

"Couldn't risk getting waylaid by Soundwave and Nightshade. I'm not stupid, you know." Starscream said.

"You're stupid enough to attempt a coup in broad daylight and expect the Decepticons to follow you." Megatron spat.

"And what exactly are you going to do to me? I know I'm to be punished, but it won't do to execute me after saving the island from that mad bitch and her zombie horde. It won't look good to the other Seekers if you kill their commander!" Starscream warned.

"You think I don't have your precious Seekers held at gunpoint at a moment's notice if they try anything? Your arrogance truly knows no bounds, Starscream!" Megatron backhanded him into the wall without another word. "Would you like another, Starscream? I'm happy to remind you how I put you into stasis the last time we fought."

"Don't worry, I remember it all very clearly." Starscream grumbled, wiping his split lip.

"Then you know that you're not getting out of this situation unscathed. As of today, you are relieved of your command over the Seeker armada and are regulated to the same status as Thundercracker and Skywarp. The Seekers will be placed under the command of Dreadwing."

"Dreadwing?! That honor-bound dullard? He's no Seeker!" Starscream raged.

"Hence why I'm making him commander. He's more trustworthy than you and knows where his priorities lie; with fighting the Autobots, not causing dissent among the ranks!" Megatron grabbed Starscream by the neck and slammed him up against the wall. "We're fighting a war and you think it's a good time to try to take control when our enemies have us bent over the table?! You call yourself a warrior but your recent actions have proven that you're less than even a cage fighter!"

He threw his former aerospace commander to the floor and marched to the doors, where he stopped and glanced back at Starscream.

"What happened, Starscream? There was a time when you were among my most loyal followers, and here you are, doing your best to usurp me. Why all the treachery and stupidity? What have I don't to earn your ire in our conquest of the galaxy?" Megatron asked.

Starscream's expression morphed into one of loathing as he addressed the question. "Take a good, long look at Cybertron, then at this accursed four million year long war, and you'll have your answer."

XXXXXX

"He's still having fits?" Gina Harkins said, holding the phone close to her ear with her shoulder as she worked on the latest version of her newly concocted EMP caster. One of her favorite anime was on the flat screen TV before her, but she paid it no mind as she checked up on her boyfriend's condition-which wasn't as good as she hoped.

" _Yeah, it's really bad. Darren's been waking up in the middle of the night nonstop since he got back and it has Debbie in a fit."_ Annie said on the other line. _"He won't go into detail about what happened, but all the killing and his mind meld with Sunstreaker…it's getting to him, Gina."_

"Is there anything we can do?" Gina asked helplessly.

" _Aside from sending him to a therapist? There's nothing we can do, at least, not yet. Ratchet said that Darren and Sunstreaker will still suffer echoes of each other's memories even after they're separated. He never said how long the side effects will last."_ Annie gave a shaky sigh. Gina knew the girl was trying to stay strong, but talking about her twin brother like this was hard. _"I know I sounded optimistic when he came back, Gina, but I…"_

"I know, Annie. I know." Gina sighed. "Just take care of him the best you can, okay?"

" _Sure thing. Be sure to visit at our place sometime, go out eating or something. We could use a break."_

"I'll keep that in mind." Gina paused when she heard the doorbell. "I got to go, Annie. Tell Darren and the others I said hi."

She hung up and went to get the door, since her mother was at her martial arts school and her father was planning a seminar at the local college. When she opened the door, she was greeted by a tall black man, around the same age as her mother, dressed in an Air Force uniform. Taking note of the eagle-shaped pins on his shoulders, the girl looked at him uneasily.

"I'm sorry, do I know you, Colonel…?"

"Walter Barnett, Air Force Intelligence." A flash of ID verified his identity. "I'm sorry for the intrusion, ma'am, but may I come in?"

Suspicions raised and her senses on guard, Gina opened the door a little wider. "Sure, have a seat. Sorry for the mess, I wasn't expecting company. Would you like anything to drink?"

"Just water please." Barnett studied Gina and noted the rather startling difference in appearance to the photo Howards gave him. This nerdy looking girl looked a bit older than 14, and was built as if she'd been doing exercises since childhood. No normal fourteen year old could get muscles like that from puzzles and programming. "Are you parents' home?"

"No, they're out today. I can give them a call if you want."

"No, that's not necessary. I'm here to talk to you." He opened his briefcase and removed a few files. "I've been assigned to clarify a few details concerning the recent robot attacks on Fallon and Tampa."

"Oh? And what brings you to the home of an archeologist and martial arts teacher? I doubt it's because of my dad's disappearance three years ago." Gina said as she pulled out two glasses. Barnett could see that her muscles were tense and her posture coiled like a snake ready to attack. He better get to the point quick.

"My superiors and I are looking into the string of strange activity that's been going on around the world since the radiowave interference last year. We have satellite images of large transforming mechanoids appearing around the globe, the number of sightings culminating in a massive battle in Brasnya a few months ago. We suspect that aside from the ones in these photos, there are more of them, and they're factionalized. I've also recently learned that these robots are living entities who may have been on Terra longer than we realize." As Gina set the tray down opposite him and gave the photos a critical eye, he watched her for any form of reaction. "In my line of work, we're taught not to trust coincidences. I suspect that you do know something about what's going on here and given the fact that one military base and two towns were assaulted by these things, I and everyone in the top brass are very much concerned."

"And I can't blame them." Gina put down the papers and photos and took off her glasses to give the colonel a hard stare, arms crossed under her chest. "I don't see what this has to do with me."

Walter leaned forward slightly, lightly tapping a fuzzy image of Optimus and Megatron grappling in the Brasnyan snow. "Ms. Harkins, I'm going to be frank about this. Deny it all you like, it's clear that you've had some measure of contact with these beings. Given recent events, there are individuals who would like to see us attack these things. I don't want to see that happen unless necessary and I think that you can help prevent such an occurrence."

Gina tapped her finger on the table as she weighed her options. It was only a matter of time before the government or military acted on the Dynobots' fight in Fallon and the massive OZ/Autobot battle in Tampa, but she wasn't expecting for an Air Force official to pop up on her doorstep. "If this were a movie, I'd be trying to beat around the bush, denying everything…but between everything I've been through and my own common sense, I know full well that would be pointless."

She walked over to her laptop case and shuffled around inside. "You're right-there ARE two main factions, with one far less interested in seeing human casualties than the other. I know that for a fact because I've met and spoken with them. In fact, they're my friends." Gina found a blue CD with a red polygon sketched on it. "The ones that attacked are called Decepticons and the ones who fought them are Autobots. They're from a race called cybertronians, native to the planet Cybertron and are in the middle of a civil war that's destroyed their world and spread to the greater galaxy. There is also another race of cybertronians called Minicons-they're about our size and they're also on this planet too. The distortions those documents mention was caused by a distress signal from an escape pod from the Minicons' ship, one that my boyfriend activated on accident. Everything I know is here."

The colonel scrutinized the disk, partly surprised at how cooperative Gina was being, but also glad for the lack of word dancing. "Thank you. I'd give the standard speech about serving your country, but I doubt you'd want to hear it." Walter made note of the red shape on the CD as he put back everything into the briefcase. "I'm going to need to review this before I speak with my superiors. For the time being, I suggest you inform the…Autobots, I'm assuming, about what's happened here."

Gina raised a delicate eyebrow. "You aren't taking me into custody? And you actually want me to contact them?"

"As you've confirmed, these beings are factionalized, and the faction you're interacting with is clearly more benign than the other. Besides, this is the start of something big for mankind. Better not to make enemies out of possible allies." Walter nodded to Gina and walked out the door. "Good day, Ms. Harkins. I hope this information proves helpful, for all our sakes."

XXXXXX

Soundwave wasted no time in giving a detail explanation as to his absence. Upon leaving the CR chamber and given a clean bill of health by Knockout, he went into detail about his confrontation with Bludgeon, getting trapped in his alt mode and being buried with Ravage and Laserbeak inside a volcano. Megatron was furious when he learned that there were members of his own army conspiring off world against him, but his fury reached fever pitch when Soundwave revealed that Ravage and Laserbeak were under the thrall of humans.

"What?! How did the humans achieve this?" Megatron demanded.

"I can only theorize that they aimed to use them as weapons against us. They implanted neural inhibitors to suppress their minds and gain control of their bodies and faculties." Soundwave said. "I was fortunate they did not realize my true nature. If they had, I most likely would be in pieces right now."

"Who did this?" Nightshade asked. "OZ?"

"No, Skywatch. According to the information in Ravage and Laserbeak's minds, they are a secret organization based in Delpoi with the goal of eliminating extraterrestrial threats-us. They were the ones who sent the Dynobots out."

"That explains those yahoos running around in broad daylight." Leader-1 muttered.

"Megatron, surely you're not going to let this slide. We have our hands full with OZ, and now we've got another organization trying to use us as weapons!" Nightshade said.

"I don't intend to let this insult pass, Nightshade. We may lack any credible resources on OZ, but we can certainly show this Skywatch who their dealing with." Megatron said. "Soundwave, find out where the humans were holding Ravage and Laserbeak. I want to send a message to those humans who think they can turn one of ours into slaves and avoid retribution!"

Soundwave bowed his head. "Your will shall be done, Lord Megatron."

XXXXXX

"As recent events have shown, it's clear this war of ours might not be as secret anymore." Optimus Prime looked among the assembled Autobots and Minicons. "OZ has dealt us a serious blow, and the Dynobots' battle in Fallon will cause the humans to start asking questions and looking into our activities on this planet."

"What I want to know is how those yahoos were able to find our location! I thought we were safe from detection from satellite surveillance." Ironhide grumbled.

"Darren said that they hooked into Sunstreaker's head and sifted through his memories. Basically, the headmasters knew everything about us, the Ark and our location from Sunstreaker's mind." Prowl said, his expression grim. "It's why they assaulted us with three airships; because they knew that even with their battleship, they wouldn't last long against the Ark's weapons."

"Well this is a fine mess." Jetfire rubbed the back of his head. "So what do we do now? Can't be robots in disguise when the whole world's gunning for us."

"That's what we're trying to figure out." Optimus said. "We won't be able to operate in secret anymore thanks to OZ, and we need to figure out how to go about this in a way that won't make us enemies of the entire country."

"Anyone got the President on speed-dial?"Rodimus quipped dryly, rotating his newly repaired legs.

"What about the Cons? Where do they fall into this clusterfrag?" Arcee asked.

"Darren told us that OZ also made clones of Barricade, since his head was found at their facility. Chances are OZ also led an assault on the Cons just like they did us." Jazz said. "Bucket head's probably in the same boat we are. Only problem is that he's gonna retaliate in force once he finds someone to point his gun at."

"And with our secrecy at risk, he might throw caution to the wind and start acting more openly." Bulkhead said.

"If that event comes to pass, we'll do all we can to stop further devastation and try to prevent Megatron from making this already bad situation worse." Optimus said.

"That's something we'll hold you to, Optimus." Everyone looked down and saw Gina and Sureshock enter the room, both girls looking deadly serious as they addressed the Autobots. "Sorry for interrupting, guys, but I have some bad news to give you all."

"As if we need more bad news." Rodimus muttered, earning an elbow from Tomahawk.

"Its okay, Gina, we're happy to have you here. Although I thought you would be resting with the others." Optimus said.

"Yeah, well, something big came up and it's why I needed to see you." Gina's expression turned into a grimace. "I had a visitor earlier today, a Colonel Barnett from Air Force Intelligence. I'm sorry, but the guys in the White House know all about you now."

Alarmed glances spread among those gathered, but Optimus raised a calming hand. "Gina, there's no need for apologies. Now please, tell us everything you can."

XXXXXX

" _Are you certain her information is accurate?"_

"I see little reason for her to lie to me, sir. The way she looked at me when she explained it all, it was a look no child her age should ever have." Glad for the teleconference capabilities and the privacy of the C-40B, Barnett still continued to make sure no one was eavesdropping on him. "Besides, it correlates with both my sources as well as the information we've been able to collect on our own. It looks to me like some of these 'cybertronians' may well be benign, or at least less interested in harming us than the others."

" _Then we may well be walking a fine line."_ Abernathy remained thoughtful for a moment. _"Colonel, if what you've gathered is accurate, then we're on the cusp of an actual first contact with an alien race. We need to tread carefully here, we have problems enough with our enemies on this planet-we don't need enemies on another one, especially if they're giant robots."_

"Any recommendations, then?"

" _I have a meeting with the President and the Joint Chiefs shortly. For now, see if you can locate wherever the cybertronians here on Terra are based. Once we have the go ahead from the president, make contact. Let's avoid a fight if we can."_

"Yes, sir." The transmission ended and Barnett returned to his notes. Based on Rebecca's info, Skywatch had tried searching for any large unknown aircraft (or spacecraft in this case) but found nothing. This wasn't surprising, since he figured they'd have ways to avoid detection from satellites and such. This meant he had no idea where they were, and no way to contact them.

'But I may have a way around that.' Barnett thought. It was a good thing he memorized Gina Harkins' phone number.

XXXXXX

"Wait a nano-klik, your government's been keeping track of us?"

"Don't sound so surprised, Bee. We were bound to get their attention eventually." Ironhide looked at Gina. "Between the huge fight in Brasnya and our recent less than subtle battles with the Cons, I'm surprised we weren't noticed sooner."

"That might be because Skywatch was doing a little bit of information manipulation to keep this stuff under wraps so they could handle it." Sureshock said.

"But why go to you?" Rodimus scratched his head. "I mean, how could they know you had a connection to all this? I know they couldn't have connected the escape pod's distress signal to you kids."

Gina rubbed her chin. "Maybe…it wasn't the government specifically, but someone from the outside. Someone with more resources and information than the Helic military."

"Skywatch." Prowl said.

"I'm guessing someone from that group phoned in the Colonel and told him of our involvement thanks to our little get together with Soundwave back in that secret base. That's the only way they could've connected me to that. Add in the fact that my dad's rather high profile and suddenly the dots start connecting." Gina said.

"Sounds like we may need to prepare for an attack." Prowl said, looking at Optimus. "There's no guarantee they can tell the difference between us and the Decepticons."

"I don't think so. My mom served with the Marines during the Gulf War, and one thing she stressed was that the Helic military believes in honor and acting without provocation, despite what current events might tell you." Gina said, giving Rodimus a dry smile. "Odds are someone noticed your little show in Brasnya and putting water on a heated feud before shots could be fired. Besides, my impression of the colonel is that he won't recommend an attack unless he feels justified. And even if he does, he can't call up any local forces. There aren't any military installations in Acadia as far as I know." The last part was direct at Optimus, both as warning and reassurance.

"Nevertheless, we need to take precautions." The Autobot leader looked among his troops. "Assess local weather conditions and make certain our stealth capabilities are at full strength."

"Optimus," Jolt raised his hand. "It might be a good idea to look up this colonel that Gina met. If we can learn about his career, we might be able to better deal with him."

"An excellent idea. For now, here's hoping we can settle this peacefully. I don't want to create more enemies when we don't need to."

XXXXXX

It was dark in the office of Joshua Red, Director of Skywatch. Things were quiet, but that was just a façade to the chaos going on in the world right now. All because of those damn aliens.

It was a complete disaster to say the least. Losing every one of their captured alien assets and having them basically expose their existence to the public in a spectacular debacle, as well as ousting Skywatch to the wider government. It was easy to say that the Director was no happy at all. He was dreading the reports flooding in, as well as news of military and government officials up in arms at Skywatch's revealing.

One of their bases was completely demolished thanks to Thunder Lizard-1's escape and now that those aliens regrouped with their other friends, there was a chance that Skywatch's existence was known to a race of dangerous beings. It was only a matter of time before they retaliated in some form.

'I should've listened to my instincts.' Joshua Red thought despondently. 'I should have listened to Howards.'

She figured that what happened to Thunder Lizards 1-5 was an act of sabotage, though there were no signs of such a thing happening. When he thought about it, it was a plausible theory. Manipulating the neural inhibitors to make it seem like they were failing was an easy thing to do if you understood the technology. But things were so crazy right now that he had to do something.

Having lost their only countermeasures against the aliens, Red knew he had to change his plans. Among them was deal with the fallout from the president regarding Skywatch's existence outside the chain of command and the possibility of him losing his position.

" _Director Red, you have a call on line one. I believe its Mr. Hollander."_ A woman's voice rang through his phone line.

Red sighed and picked up the phone. "Director Red here."

" _It's Hollander. I saw the news."_ A gruff voice said on the other line. _"What a fine mess you've gotten us in."_

"I'm well aware of how things look for us, Alexander. No need to rub it in." Red said exasperated.

" _We started this operation with over ten NBEs under our control, and now we have none with Congress breathing down our necks and a bunch of aliens using our planet as a breathing ground. I thought you had this under control, Red!"_

"No more than you having things under control with Karaba. How did that go for you again? Working with military officials in experimenting on espers was going to go wrong in ways even a five year old can understand." Red spat and took a deep breath. "Look, I'm not calling you for that. I'm here to inform you that the way things are going, there's a high chance I'm going to be replaced and I want that replacement to be you."

" _I'm not surprised. I'm the only other member of Project: Hot House that's still alive aside from Colton. Speaking of which, do you think it's time to use it against the aliens? We've already proven its capabilities against the NBEs."_

"We still have yet to control the talisman. Until we're sure it's safe to use, we can't weaponize it. For now, just focus on keeping Skywatch on the job. Our fight to keep Terra from becoming a battleground is only going to be harder from here on out." Red told his associate.

Before he could go into detail on his plans, his aide burst through his door. "Sir, we have an emergency!"

"What is it? I'm having an important phone call!" Red hissed.

"It's urgent, sir! The base is-"

There was a loud rumble that shook the room and made the two go silent. Red's face paled and he quickly hung up on Hollander before sprinting out of his seat to head to the command center, where the security cameras were monitoring the area outside the disguised base. The rumbles grew as he ran into the center and saw agents and soldiers running about in a panic, many carrying weapons.

"What the hell is going on here?" He yelled. A soldier ran up to him and saluted.

"Director Red, the base is under attack by a group of NBEs! They're attacking the base in full force!"

"They're already attacking? How did they know where we're based?" Red asked, but no one had the time to think of an answer.

Up on the main monitor, and also on the dozens of smaller monitors, it showed the gigantic forms of the Decepticons tearing apart the abandoned town their base was located in, ruthlessly annihilating the opposing forces sent to hold them at bay. Red watched in horror as Skywatch talos units and armored vehicles were torn apart and blasted to atoms with horrific ease. Infantry wouldn't stand a chance against these mechanical monsters and he knew that.

Outside, Megatron looked at the main building where he knew the Skywatch base was located and grinned at the humans, knowing they could see him and his troops systematically tear apart their meager defenses.

"Humans!" He bellowed to the now terrified soldiers. "You wanted an alien specimen to play with, yes? Well here I am! Let's see how you fair against at conqueror!"

XXXXXX

Barnett was fortunate that President Flagg authorized making contact with the robotic aliens, as it turned out that the aliens were looking to make contact with him. Gina had called him up using the phone number he left her and he took the first flight back to Dakote. After getting a rental car from the airport, he took a long ride to the forests surrounding Tranquility where Gina told him to meet up with the Autobots, the aliens who wanted to meet with him.

It was the longest ride he had ever taken. What he was doing now would possibly make history, though he supposed the kids had already beat him to it. He followed the directions the girl gave him and drove along a bumpy dirt road, which took him to the foot of a dormant volcano. He idly noted the giant hole in the side of the mountain, as well as the deep trenches and uprooted trees that definitely did not look natural. Then he noticed three figures standing in the tattered clearing.

He pulled his car to a stop and got out. Barnett slipped off his glasses, quickly recognizing the lone human as Gina. The two mechanoids, meanwhile, were vastly different; one was a Minicon, small with yellow and crème-colored armor, the other an Autobot, large with red and blue armor. 'Sparkplug' and 'Optimus Prime', respectively, from the CD he read through. He waited for the three to approach him, and everything was silent until the Autobot leader spoke in his deep voice.

"Colonel Barnett, I presume."

"Optimus Prime." The colonel relaxed, though only slightly. "I wish that the circumstances of this meeting had been different, but I'm afraid current events prevent a better opportunity."

"As do we." The Autobot leader himself seemed to relax slightly, as did the Minicon and their human ally. "I assure you, we've meant no harm to this planet or any of the lifeforms or nations existing upon it. Under optimal circumstances, we would have remained unnoticed. You no doubt know why we're here by now."

"As do my superiors." Barnett looked to Gina. "Ms. Harkins was kind enough to provide us enough intelligence to realize that you mean us no harm. For that, we're all thankful. Unfortunately, now that we're aware of your presence on this world, we cannot stand by and allow you to act on your own. The conflict with Megatron's forces may be your war, but this is our world, and we are now party to it whether we wish to be or not. We also realize that you cannot simply leave-with your ship effectively useless, you lack the means to really leave on your own, and the plans the Decepticons have for Terra are threat enough by itself."

"Then you know why they can't leave." Gina looked at Sparkplug sadly. "There are at least two dozen stasis panels from the Minicon ship scattered over the planet. Megatron won't leave until he's either claimed them or until the Minicons themselves are found. Not to mention his plans to conquer Terra."

"Which is why I have a proposal to make. You need resources and assistance in locating the Minicons and defending against the Decepticons. We're prepared to offer that to you."

"Alliances tend to work both ways, colonel." Sparkplug said, staring at him carefully. "What do you want in return?"

"Whatever you can or are willing to give. Your race has existed for millions of years longer than ours. I'm certain we can find something to constitute a fair trade that works for both parties." Barnett suggested.

Optimus studied the human closely, analyzing his tone of voice and his expressions. He seemed earnest, and given his decision to come alone as well as unarmed, the Autobot leader was inclined to believe the colonel. He carefully knelt on one knee so as to be closer to eye level, mentally pleased that Barnett stood his ground. "I would like that. There are some things we cannot give your people, but I know there are many things we can do to help one another regardless. Contact your superiors. We can schedule negotiations at their leisure."

He raised his hand, his index finger almost fully extended. "I hope this is a good beginning."

A small smile cracked the colonel's face as he accepted the offered digit. "As do I. For both our peoples."

* * *

 **This is the first of this three-chapter story that takes place between books 2 and 3, setting the stage for the**

 **plot of book 3. Things are changing for the Autobots, Decepticons and humans as each side must adapt to**

 **changing conditions. Also, Distant Stars will have a sequel, called Transformers: Mosaic. Thanks for the**

 **support and stay tuned for the next two chapters!**


	2. First Encounters

First Encounters

It was the middle of the night and Starscream was freezing. As if standing in the heart of the Arctic Circle wasn't bad enough, it had to be in the middle of the night with no sunlight to provide any warmth. As resilient as his body was in certain climates, extreme temperatures like this could kill him if he wasn't careful. Not to mention the very real possibility of dying of boredom. There was nothing to see here except one plain of ice that went on for miles in all directions. Honestly it was annoying.

"Would you stop brooding, Starscream? It's unbecoming of you." Thundercracker sighed, scrolling through his datapad as he leaned against an icy boulder.

"Unbecoming of me? Who the hell do you think you are to say such a thing to me, Thundercracker." Starscream growled. "I'm a Seeker, doing errands is below my capabilities."

"You can't really talk after failing to kill Megatron. You should've known that would've gone belly up." Thundercracker said. "Be glad he's putting us on parole or I'd be in the middle of a military tribunal right now with your corpse fashioned into Megatron's throne."

"Don't remind me. Empowered by ore-13 and he still thrashed me around." Starscream sighed and crossed his arms. "What are you doing there, anyway?"

"Watching Nurse Whitney." Thundercracker replied. Starscream made a noise of disgust.

"That again? Really, Thundercracker, what possessed you to be so enamored with human television?"

"He's been spending too much time watching flicks with Knockout." Skywarp grunted.

"It passes the time." Thundercracker said defensively. "Unlike you, I don't pass the hours getting my head caved in on a daily basis!"

"Quiet!" Dreadwing's voice boomed bringing silence over the clearing. The large mech walked up to the trio and stared all of them down. "Need I remind you we are all on duty? This is a mission, not a social club!"

"These two were just catching me up on current events, Dreadwing." Starscream said, failing to keep the hatred of his usurper out of his voice and expression. "It's been a while since I last walked this planet."

"That was no one else's fault but yours, Starscream." Dreadwing said, staring the former commander down. "And its Commander Dreadwing, now, traitor. Keep that in mind."

"Don't worry. I won't be forgetting that fact anytime soon." Starscream hissed.

Thundercracker and Skywarp looked between the two Seekers, neither wanting to be the one to break up this intense moment. Starscream made it clear that he loathed the idea of someone like Dreadwing replacing him, considering him too soft for the position of commander. Starscream was wise enough not to rant about it, as he and his subordinates were on parole, and any slip up would give Megatron an excuse to kill all of them. Which meant that the two had to remind Starscream to reign it in every once in a while.

"They're coming!" Laserbeak cawed above them, flying circles in the air. "The ship is coming!"

Dreadwing held Starscream's gaze for a few more minutes before nodding to Laserbeak. "Signal them to land. It's time to meet the new additions to our team."

XXXXXX

The screams of terrified men and women filled the dark halls of the Decepticon Field Base on Decepticon Island as they were systematically tortured at the hands of the Minicons. Nightshade would be lying if she said that she enjoyed hearing those screams, and in some cases the sickening crunch of bones and wet tearing of flesh, but she held no sympathy for them. The humans had the audacity to think they could use cybertronians, let alone Decepticons, as bloodhounds and weapons for their petty wars. It was time they reap what they sowed.

'If I can't get my revenge on OZ, then these Skywatch fools will have to do.' Nightshade thought. She was leaning on the wall adjacent of the door to the prison block where the humans were being kept. Leader-1 was having the time of his life driving the humans mad and Ravage had his fill of blood as revenge for what they did to him. 'Compared to OZ, these clowns don't even match up in regards to being a threat to us.'

"Ma'am." Demolishor appeared in the doorway and saluted her. "Dreadwing has returned with the new commander of the Reavers."

"Bring him in." She said.

Demolishor nodded and stepped aside to allow two people in. One was Dreadwing, of course, but the other was a new face in the base. She was a black and gray femme with a slender aerodynamic body frame that aided her aerial alt mode. Her dark crimson eyes glowed ominously in the darkness as she approached Nightshade and saluted.

"Commander Darkshadow reporting for duty, as ordered, ma'am." Her voice was smooth, much like the purr of a deadly beast as her red eyes met Nightshade's violet ones.

"Welcome to Terra, Darkshadow. I'm sorry I had to ship your team here on such short notice, but things haven't been very pleasant for us on this planet." Nightshade said over the faint screams. "Has Shockwave briefed you on the situation?"

"Yes, he was very specific about the importance of this planet in the grand scheme of things, though not in the way we're both thinking, I assume." Darkshadow said. Nightshade smirked.

"You read my mind." She said. "We're in need of assistance against the Autobots and this world's native population. If you've noticed the pile of bodies and severe damage this island has incurred, then you've seen what the humans have managed to do to us."

"I'm guessing those same humans are the ones screaming for mercy right now?"

"No, these are the different humans, people who thought they wouldn't get caught committing atrocities against us. The people behind the damages outside are far more cunning and powerful than we truly realized and we need more soldiers on this planet to maintain a steady presence against our enemies." Nightshade informed her.

"Worry not, Lieutenant, my team and I shall make those fleshies regret ever hearing the name Decepticons." Darkshadow said passionately.

"What about your team?" Nightshade asked. "I imagine the Reavers will be a bit shorthanded with two of their number serving on this mission."

"My lover, Stormbreaker, is more than capable of leading the group in my absence. She's learned the tricks of the trade from me, and she will keep the rivers of blood flowing on every world the Reavers touch." Darkshadow's eyes gained a mad glint to them, though visibly she remained calm in the presence of her superior.

"I'm sure she will." Nightshade replied.

"Where is Lord Megatron? I thought he'd be the first to meet with us." She asked.

"Inside interrogating our prisoners. He will be with you shortly."

Darkshadow smirked. "I feel sorry for those animals."

XXXXXX

"Hold on, you guys are really going to meet the President?" Annie asked in disbelief from her bean bag chair. It was a new addition she and Grindor acquired from the local junkyard where they got most of their furniture for the Minicons' Ark quarters. It's not stealing if they don't want it. "I mean, that's cool and all, but doesn't he have other people to do things like that for him?"

"According to Jazz, Optimus makes it a rule to meet with visiting dignitaries if the need arises. Though rare, there are a few times when the Autobots must come out to certain races to ally with them." High Wire said. "From what I hear about your President, he seems like a man willing to do the same."

The three children and their Minicon partners sat in a far off corner of the Minicon wing in the Ark, conversing about what could be the most historic occasion in human history. Gina had just revealed that she was going to be accompanying Optimus, Prowl and Sparkplug to meet with President Flagg of the Helic Republic.

"How did you get roped into this, Gina? I didn't think that Prime or Prowl would think to bring you along to the negotiations." Grindor asked.

Gina shrugged, looking a bit sheepish. "Well…Colonel Barnett said that he was really impressed with my maturity for someone my age, and I'm probably the only one here who knows more about the Autobots on a personal and professional level. I totally wasn't expecting it, but Optimus and Sparkplug encouraged me to go."

Darren, who looked paler than usual with bags under his eyes, gave Gina a little smile and hugged her closer. "You're the perfect girl for the job, babe. No one else knows these guys like you do."

"Not to mention going to Cybertron and meeting Vector Sigma itself." Sureshock pointed out.

Gina blushed. "Aw, thanks you guys." She gave Darren a kiss on the cheek and squeezed his hand.

"How did Penny take the news? I imagine she's not too crazy about missing an opportunity to meet the President and make history." High Wire asked.

"She was surprisingly cool about it. I guess after everything we went through, she's giving me a boon for our troubles." Gina said.

Annie leaned back in her soft, plushy seat and sighed. "This is nuts. Here we are, a year later after finding that escape pod in the mountain and now we're at the forefront of interstellar relations. A lot has changed for us, hasn't it?"

"Yeah. Barely a year and all this stuff is happening at once." Gina said. "It almost seems unreal, doesn't it?"

"Well, reality has a way of reminding us that it's real." Darren muttered. Gina glanced at him worriedly.

He looked terrible, pale and exhausted with small bags under his eyes. It took him a few days after the surgery to muster up the courage to even come back to the Ark, afraid of seeing D-Va's body again. The nightmares and flashes of Sunstreaker's lingering memories in his mind wreaked havoc on his health and Debbie was doing the best she could to help him recover, as was Ratchet. Gina doubted after watching Sparkplug cremate D-Va's body, Darren would never be the same again.

Things were changing all right, but not all of it was good.

XXXXXX

"I have to say, Agent Red," Megatron said, glaring at the human hanging before him. "You're more resilient than I give you credit for."

Joshua Red, former director of Skywatch and now prisoner of the Decepticons, coughed a bit before glaring up at Megatron. "Don't talk to me like we're equal, alien!"

"My name is Megatron!" Laserbeak touched his beak to Red's body and sent a painful electrical jolt into his spine, making him scream. Megatron nodded at Laserbeak and stop to put his point across. "You'd best remember that before you start mouthing off at your betters."

Megatron and Soundwave had a field day interrogating Joshua. As the head of Skywatch, he was privy to a lot of classified information about the group that wasn't even written on paper, like moth of Skywatch's documents. They weren't even aiming to get him, it was just good fortune on their part after finding him among the prisoners who escaped the massacre of the base. When they realized what they had on their hands, Megatron had Knockout produce a few facsimiles of the capture humans to act as fake corpses and brought them back to Decepticon Island. While Leader-1's group handled the other humans, Megatron wanted to handle the director personally.

Joshua hung by his arms in chains hanging from the ceiling, letting his weight pull hard on his arms. Laserbeak was positioned above him on a perch, designated with electrocuting the man if he became too difficult. It had only been a few hours since he was brought to the cell and he was already wishing for death, though he'd never give them the satisfaction of begging for it.

"His mind is strongly defended against telepathic manipulation." Soundwave said, his unblinking gaze on Red's limp form. "I believe his mind was trained to defend against espers with telepathic powers to avoid losing classified information."

"These people have their bases covered." Megatron hummed and looked at Red. "Can you still look into his mind?

"Yes, though it will take a while."

"Keep at it, then. This man knows everything there is about his good for nothing organization and I want to eliminate it before we have another problem on our hands." Megatron heard a knock on the door, probably from Nightshade. "Ah, our new recruits are here. Perfect."

"Y-You'll…" Red groaned. "You'll never get our world…alien. We have the means to fight you. This planet belongs to humanity-ahhh!"

Red's body was jolted by more painful shocks that made his body twitch and convulse. Megatron smirked and flicked his finger against Red's side, breaking one rib with that simple gesture and making him scream.

"After today, your pathetic organization will be nothing but ash and dust. Compared to the other humans we've faced, you're hardly a challenge." He said and turned to the door. Don't think that your psychic defenses will help you here. Soundwave will get into your head even if we have to extract your brain to retrieve the information!"

XXXXXX

Darkshadow knelt on one knee before Megatron, her head bowed. "Lord Megatron, it is an honor to serve under you."

"And it is a pleasure to have you under my command Darkshadow." Megatron said. He motioned for Darkshadow and her team to rise as he addressed them. "Your reputation is as large as the mountain of bodies you've left in your wake. I need someone like you to aid us on this strange and dangerous world we're stationed on."

"I'm honored, my lord. I am happy to lend my assistance to your cause." She said silkily.

Darkshadow's group, the Reavers, were one of the most infamous taskforces in the Decepticon army. Numbering in the hundreds, the Reavers were basically the type of people who would spearhead an all out assault on heavily defended bases and installations. Long story short, they were akin to the Wreckers, like Squadron X before them, but more methodical in how they mobilized and fought an enemy. Darkshadow's analytical mindset allowed her group to rack up a kill count of Wreckers, garnering a reputation for assaulting heavily defended Autobot bases just to draw the Wreckers to her so she could annihilate them.

Another open secret about Darkshadow was that she actually got a bit of a pleasurable rush from fighting tough battles herself. No one mentioned it, no one talked to her about it (save for her conjux Stormbreaker) and no one wanted to acknowledge it. This fixation was disturbing enough without knowing the intricacies of it.

"Fighting Prime's team is hard enough, but we also have another alien race to deal with, in addition to the humans who constantly interfere with our war." Megatron said, pacing in front of Darkshadow. "The Infiltration Process is all but moot now in this situation and our location has been compromised. We need to hit them hard and hit them fast, but remain hidden until the time is right."

"Are you not going to take action, Lord Megatron?" Darkshadow asked.

"No, I'm waiting for the Autobots to make their move. Their silence has me concerned and I'm not running into some trap of theirs." He said.

"Darkshadow, you will lead your own team on this world from a base we're constructing in central Emmeria." Nightshade said. "We're also having another field base built in Azteca as fallback positions in case this island is attacked again. We need to be more careful now, more than ever."

"Nightshade is right, caution is paramount. This little pocket war of ours has escalated in ways none of us were expecting." Megatron looked out the window, arms crossed behind his back. "This world will be ours, but one wrong move will throw it all away."

"Do you have a plan in mind, my lord?" Asked Darkshadow.

"We do what we always do. Adapt, change, and conquer." Megatron replied. "We will not let this planet bring us to our knees. We will crush Terra and humanity under the iron fist of the Decepticons!"

XXXXXX

"Sunny?" The black and yellow Autobot blinked before turning to find Rodimus staring at him in surprise." What're you doing here?"

"Having some time to myself, what else?" Sunstreaker grumbled and took a deep swig of his drink. He turned back to face the Solivision screen, which was showing a human documentary on the Belkan war. "What do you want?"

Rodimus walked up next to his comrade and took a seat. "Just lookin' for some solitude. Everyone's falling over themselves to make sure this meeting with the president goes smoothly."

Sunstreaker snorted. "Pathetic, stressing out just to make some fleshy feel welcome to us. As if we weren't eating slag at the bottom of the energon cube already."

"Whoa, where did this hostility come from?" Rodimus said, looking his friend over. Sunstreaker had made a full recovery thanks to Ratchet repairing his dismembered body and using spare headmaster limbs to fully complete his skeletal structure. However, he could see in Sunstreaker's eyes that the mental wounds he suffered were far greater in scope than he could ever realize. "Sunny, is this about-"

"Don't say it!" Sunstreaker growled, his blue eyes flashing with pure anger. His grip on his glass tightened to the point the glass started to crack. "Don't you fragging dare mention those filthy humans in front of me!"

"Okay, okay, sorry." Rodimus cleared his throat and went to get himself some processed energon. "So…how are you feeling?"

"Like I was torn limb from limb by a bunch of hairless apes who thought I was their science experiment," Sunstreaker said dryly. "What the hell do you think?"

"Ratchet's operations can leave a mech in a bad mood, it's nothing to worry about." Rodimus replied as if he never heard Sunstreaker. Returning to his seat, he swirled his drink in his glass for a moment as he pondered if his next question was going to get him shot at. "Darren's been asking to see you. He made it through the surgery just fine, aside from the residual psychic link still remaining between you two. He wanted to speak to you about the craziness that went on the past few weeks."

"Tell him I'm not interested." Sunstreaker said carelessly. "I've had my fill of humans, especially whiny brats like him."

"That whiny brat ended your suffering at the hands of OZ and saved everyone here. That whiny brat risked his life looking for your head to keep OZ from using you as a weapon." Rodimus said defensively. He wasn't close to the children like some of the other Bots, but he knew that Darren went through hell to end this mess and he respected the boy for it.

"That fragging brat didn't kill me when I asked him to. He had the audacity to make me go through that hell longer than I should've and dragged me across the country looking into every shadow." Sunstreaker's hands started to tremble a bit. "I could see into his mind and he could see into mine. We saw each other's memories and thoughts and I never felt so violated. And by a fleshy at that!"

"Don't call him-"

"THEY TORE ME APART, YOU FRAGGING IDIOT!" Sunstreaker roared into Rodimus's face. "I WAS AWAKE FOR THE ENTIRE THING! THEY TORE OFF MY LIMBS, POKED AROUND IN MY HEAD AND SEARCHED THROUGH MY MEMORIES LIKE SOME GOD FORSAKEN SEARCH ENGINE! I FELT ALL OF IT AND MORE!"

"You need to calm down, Sunstreaker!" Rodimus said, not backing down. "I know you've suffered a lot from them but don't lump all humans with OZ. Darren helped you get back to us, he stopped a catastrophe, and you won't even give him a few minutes to speak about what went on between you two."

"I could care less what those animals think." The wounded mech spat. "They're all the same. They'll poke and prod at us like we're machines and not living beings. This slag with the president won't change a thing. What happened to the Dynobots will happen to us too if we don't watch our backs, and I'm not going to let that torture happen to me again."

Sunstreaker downed the rest of his drink and stood up pushing past Rodimus on his way out of the rec room. He was fortunate that the children weren't near the rec room that day, because he didn't think he could stomach looking at those heartless bastards. And if Darren knew what was good for him, he'd stay away to.

XXXXXX

On the outskirts of Portland International Airport rested a large hangar, temporarily emptied of aircraft. In their place stood a number of personnel, some agents with the secret service and other airport security, but most standing throughout the building, covering each entrance and exit. Towards one end of the hangar was a long folding table, currently unoccupied, with several empty chairs arranged around it and an unopened cooler placed nearby. Standing nearby the table were two people not affiliated with the Secret Service or Portland International, one a tall man in Air Force blues and the other an oddly muscular thirteen year old girl in a business outfit. Unlike the calmer Air Force colonel, the girl was decidedly more nervous, going over the back of her black skirt and jacket with a lint brush.

"I don't think the president will mind seeing you with a little lint, Gina." Colonel Barnett said, slightly amused. "What's wrong, did you vote for his opponent in the last election?"

Gina turned her nose up at him as she stashed the lint brush back into her purse. "I'm not old enough to vote, Colonel Barnett. And if I could, I wouldn't have voted for either candidate." Drawing a breath to collect herself, she looked at her companion. "You mind giving me an opinion?"

"Last I checked, I put on this uniform so that you could do exactly that." Barnett smirked. "And he won't be here for another minute or so."

"Well…I heard that President Flagg was a member of a special ops group back in his hayday." Gina said. "Special as in Seal Team Six special."

"Not exactly. He oversaw the group, whose existence I cannot state by name. There were a lot of seriously bad people back in the last century, organizations as bad as Karaba. President Flagg oversaw a counter-terrorism group that was descended from the Adventure Team. One of my superiors, General Abernathy, was one of the main people behind the project. The group has disbanded now, but many of the members are still enlisted, actively or otherwise." Barnett said. "My father told me about them and I have never forgotten those stories."

"Sounds like someone has a role model." Gina teased.

"No, more like an inspiration. Joe Colton is my role model, and if you met the man yourself, you'd see him that way too."

"My one and only role model is my dad. That's never going to change in this lifetime."

"Keep thinking like that and you'll make it far in life, Gina." Barnett smiled down at her. He noticed the lead agent striding towards them and he asked, "Yes, Agent Bennett?"

"Cadillacs One and Six are en-route, Colonel. Are the dignitaries ready?"

A small glance towards the rest of the hangar, a familiar group of vehicles waiting in partial shadow, and the colonel gave a small smile. "They are."

Satisfied, the agent turned away and keyed into her radio. "Cadillac One, this is Roswell. We are ready for your arrival."

Given clearance by the agent, a pair of unmarked black Suburbans rolled into the hangar, the hangar's doors slowly closing behind them. On instinct, Barnett stood at attention with his hand to his brow in salute as the two SUVs rolled to a halt. Gina, caught up in the moment, stood ramrod straight beside her companion, silently watching as the President and his associates stepped out of their vehicles.

It was easy to recognize the President, even at his age he was still a tall, imposing man with a frame more befitting of a high ranking Army officer than one of the most powerful men in the world. He had short graying brown hair cut close to his scalp, and green eyes that immediately zeroed in on her like a hawk. Gina gulped, this man was the real deal. Say what you want about the man on a personal front, he was probably the go-to guy when the country is suffering a crisis.

Immediately behind him was a second, older man who emerged from the second SUV. Slightly shorter and noticeably older than the President, John Keller was nonetheless a quiet, personable man, noticeably relax. Gina was more than a little reminded of her grandfather, particularly in the man's stance and movements. Recently appointed to the position of Secretary of Defense, Gina had little chance to see the man in action, but what she saw so far was comforting, especially in comparison to the last man who held that office.

"At ease, Colonel." Barnett relaxed to parade rest at the President's rock hard voice. Republican through and through, this man was. "Fine job, Barnett."

"Thank you, sir, Mr. Secretary."

Their greeting ended, the President turned to the young girl and his expression softened as he offered his hand to her. "Gina Harkins? I hear I have you to thank for this meeting."

Gina gave a polite smile and took the hand, faintly shocking the President with her grip. "I wouldn't gone that far, Mr. President. All I've done is help us understand each other better." Looking around a bit, she added, "Um, not to be intrusive, but shouldn't the Secretary of State be here?"

"It was decided that the two of us would be enough to begin preliminary talks with your friends, Ms. Harkins." The older man's words weren't arrogant, just telling it as it is. "Once we've been assured of our visitors' friendly intentions, we'll have closer negotiations with members of the State Department. Now, we've been told that they'd be here waiting for us."

Gina gave a small smile, silently eager to see their reactions. "They're already here, Mr. Secretary. I'll allow them to do the introductions."

The red semi's headlights flared to life, engine roaring and being joined by that of a police car. Pulling away from its trailer, the truck slowly moved forward a few inches before stopping, and Gina noted the expressions on the Flagg and Keller's faces as the trailer's parts shifted, parts of his cab contorting and a pair of large hands pushing him up, legs forming from his hitch assembly and the rest of the cab shifting parts into the familiar red and gray torso. The police car's change wasn't as extreme, the vehicle splitting apart and spinning around to form legs, and arms unfolding from the undercarriage. A yellow car of unknown design emerged from the trailer and also took on a humanoid configuration of much smaller proportions.

The former Peterbilt locked his eyes on the President and slowly knelt down before him. Half the Secret Service moved in but Flagg waved at them to hold as he fearlessly looked up at the Autobot.

"Good afternoon, Mr. President. My name is Optimus Prime, and I think we have much to talk about."

XXXXXX

"How goes the interrogation?" Nightshade asked Megatron as she entered the prison block.

"Slowly. The man's brain was hardwired to resist telepathic intrusion from espers, and Soundwave's been having trouble getting to the information buried deep in his mind." Megatron said unhappily.

"Soundwave's powers aren't telepathic in nature, it's his hearing that's enhanced. If this human is protected from telepaths who can manipulate minds naturally, then someone like Soundwave who can simply hear thoughts would have a harder time piercing such defenses." Nightshade explained. "But the torture we've already inflicted upon the agent has worn him down. It shouldn't take more than a day to get the really juicy stuff buried in his brain. In fact, we already have a good deal of information on Skywatch itself."

She held out a datapad for him to read and showed him a map of the Delpoi continent. "Skywatch has installations all over the western and northwestern hemisphere, but they're mainly based in Delpoi. According to Soundwave, they've been around since the Belkan War, formed around the discovery of an alien entity, whose appearance and name still remain unknown to us. But judging from the fact they were so ready to fight us in the first place…"

"That alien may be a cybertronian." Megatron finished. His scowl deepened. He thought that no other terran group could've enraged him more than OZ, but Skywatch was quickly moving up that list. "Do we at least have the location of their bases?"

"Yes, many are located in remote areas far from civilization or working out of supposedly decommissioned military bases. A few are large holding facilities like the ones that held Sprawl, but many are both research facilities and covert weapons testing sites." Nightshade said. "Unfortunately, we're still looking for more, but the bases we have found are located in the mid-western region of the continent."

"Good work, Nightshade. Have Shockblast locate those positions and destroy them on my command." Megatron commanded. "We won't strike yet until we've squeezed every last bit of information from that worthless piece of-"

The door slid open behind Megatron and Soundwave walked out. Looking straight at Megatron, he said in his usual monotone voice, "The human is dead."

"What?!" Megatron spun around and glared at his spymaster. "How the hell did that happen?"

"Cyanide capsule." Soundwave said. "He committed suicide before I could fully extract the information from him."

Megatron growled and punched the wall. "He was our best chance at learning everything about those animals! How the hell could you miss something like that?"

"I never gleaned that from his mind. I assume the cyanide was applied in his teeth without his knowledge." Soundwave replied.

"What's done is done, so we can't change anything now." Nightshade said. "Soundwave, tell us everything you were able to learn about Skywatch. We can still use what information we have to bring them to their knees."

Megatron grunted but conceded to her. They had more than enough information right now, and as long as it enabled him to vent his rage out on someone he would settle his anger…for now.

XXXXXX

"Truthfully, Optimus, my advisors and I had a hard time believing the information we've been given about you by Colonel Barnett." President Flagg and the other humans taking part in the negotiations had taken seats around the table, joined by a few aides who were recording everything for future reference. The Autobots remained standing, trying their best not to look too imposing. No offense meant, but a race of living mechanical beings on a planet just within Terra's neighborhood, with a civilization going back before Terra even existed, sounded a bit beyond belief. Even more so is that fact that you've been sleeping on this planet before humankind even existed."

"I assure you, everything we've told you is true, especially our reasons for being here in the first place."

"These Decepticons you mentioned-that part we had the least trouble believing, given everything that's happened in the last few months, not to mention our own history." Keller shifted a bit in his seat, apparently trying to get comfortable, but subconsciously trying to work off some unease. "You can understand why we'd be a bit uncomfortable given that same information."

"The incident in Yuktobania was unfortunate and unavoidable given the circumstances." Prowl said, his tone curt and strong, no different from President Flagg's actually. "We were hoping that we'd be able to keep out of sight and not cause too much trouble here on Terra, but that's clearly no longer an option. Given the way things are escalating, we can't count on Megatron restraining himself, and if we just ignored your people, we'd be fighting our war on two fronts. We don't want that, and we especially don't want human lives getting lost because of our actions."

"Which is the primary reason why we chose to open negotiations. We can get much further in our goals by cooperating than acting independently, and we can avoid future incidents such as the ones in Brasnya and Fallon. After a few members of our team leveled a town in their fighting, something had to be done to avoid unnecessary violence."

The president thought of the escalating conflicts overseas and knew of humanity's own demons who were just as bad as these Decepticons. "What exactly are you asking for?"

"We don't know how long we'll be here on Terra or how many resources we'll ultimately need to defeat Megatron and safely rescue the Minicons. We're also fully aware that you'd be uncomfortable with the idea of us operating without your knowledge or consent. Which is why we're willing to offer a compromise."

"The Autobots have had similar dealings with other alien races, with a few becoming protectorates of their government and military." Barnett added. "In return for allowing their continued presence on Terra and Delpoi soil, they'd like to take the first steps towards a similar arrangement with humanity."

"Beginning with the Helic Republic." The President didn't beat around the bush.

"Since the Ark crashed into the middle of this nation's territory, beginning negotiations here is the most logical decision." Prowl said. "With the permission of your government, we will construct a permanent base facility within your territory at a site to be agreed upon at a later date."

"We'd also like to enlist the aid of your military in locating the remaining stasis panels." Sparkplug was calm in his words, his small size helping put both men at ease. "As you know, this is a big planet. We can't devote resources towards finding every individual panel, but we can help point you in the right direction for the ones within your territory. In return, we're hoping that you could provide us, that is to say my people, with somewhere to stay."

President Flagg nodded, seeing the value of such an agreement. "Alliances ideally work both ways. What can we expect out of this?"

The yellow Minicon produced a pair of small datapads and handed them off to the two men as Optimus continued. "The first thing we can provide is a guarantee of protection. As stated, we've had dealings with other races-those agreements include the establishment of a two-parsec buffer zone around any territory controlled by or under the protection of the Autobots. Terra falls just within that boundary now, but under this agreement, your civilization would have slightly more breathing room."

"And we'd avoid invasion by any hostile alien races seeking Terra for resources or whatever." Flagg said.

Sparkplug smiled wryly. "As unlikely that is to happen, yes, that would be part of the agreement. We'd also provide protection against more natural events, such as defenses against reasonably sized meteoroids and stellar anomalies."

Keller nodded and glanced over his datapad. "What about technological advancements?"

"Under the Tyrest Accord, both Autobots and Decepticons are forbidden from giving other races, even ones that we're allied with, access to our technology. It's the only rule of the war that both sides follow to the letter." Prowl said, making sure both men knew the parameters of that law. "Allied races are given mundane access to our technology, such as advanced artificial limbs, improved means of gaining energy through renewable sources, small boosts in technology and so on."

"As it is, the Autobots are pushing the boundaries of this Accord just by putting these offers on the table. They're willing to give us a small boost in the right direction, but it's up to humanity to stand on its own two feet in the face of the stellar community." Gina said. She carefully considered her next words. "Admittedly, I'm just a civilian here, Mr. President, not to mention a child who was just in the right place at the right time, but given all the potential benefits of this agreement, I think it's at least worth considering."

President Flagg nodded, going over the details of the agreement on the datapad. Then he finally brought up what seemed like a relevant question. "What about weapons technology?"

"That, we cannot give you, under any circumstances." Optimus' tone indicated that there would be no debate on this point, but he continued before anyone could begin to argue. "Given the human race's tendency towards violent conflict among each other, we have little assurance that you won't use any weapons we give you upon your enemies, or upon us. We have even less assurance that said technology won't fall into less responsible hands."

"It's an understandable concern, Mr. President." Colonel Barnett said before things took a downturn. "You've already read about the terrorist organization, OZ, from the reports I've sent you. They've sought alien technology to use in their conquest of the world and were behind the events of Fallon and Tampa. If more terrorists gained access to even the most basic of cybertronian weaponry, the results could be devastating."

Though not happy about being denied on that account, the president and secretary knew the colonel was right. As it was, they were both shocked and horrified to learn there was a secret human organization slowly conquering the planet from the shadows and had already used alien technology in an attempt to annihilate the Autobots and their own people.

The president himself set down his pad, weighing things in his head. "All this for a base and a little help looking for lost robots. You'll forgive me if I think this all sounds too good to be true."

"I'll be the first to admit, Mr. President, all this is a bit on the overwhelming side. But I've spent time with the Autobots and Minicons. They don't want to see this planet devastated because of their actions, and they want to keep a low profile. Whether we like it or not, they're here, and they won't be leaving until the Minicons are found and Megatron's forces are driven off the planet." Gina spoke up. She needed to hammer home that things could never go back to normal. "The world's already seen what happened in Emmeria and Delpoi, and eventually something's going to come up that's going to blow the whole lid on this case wide open. At the moment, we can either ignore them, turn away everything they're offering and risk another incident like the one in Fallon, or we can work alongside them, limit any potential bloodshed and destruction, and all gain something from the arrangement."

'She's not pulling any punches.' Prowl thought. Gina was holding herself better than he thought she would.

"We can leave if asked, Mr. President. You have every reason to do so. However, I have no eagerness to see a task left only half-finished." And he was in no hurry to leave behind the friends he's made on this world as well. "I hope our peoples can openly interact as equals and this could be an important stepping stone in that direction. But after recent events, we cannot stay secret for long. People will begin asking questions and in order to avoid panic, the world must know of the war that is going on, on Terra."

The president sat silently, thinking over everything he had heard over the course of the meeting and what he knew of the situation, weighing the pros and cons of the agreement. "While your group would willingly leave, I assume the same can't be said for these Decepticons who've made Terra their next target."

As the Autobot leader's affirming nod of his assessment, he looked to Keller, reading his face and taking a stab at what he was thinking. They might be able to fight a force of giant alien robots, but not without creating a panic or causing untold amounts of destruction and bloodshed. And that was if Megatron didn't attack Terra in full force with an armada of some kind if pushed to his limits. As a former military man, he knew that humanity's level of technology wouldn't stand a chance against the full might of an alien army, at least not alone. President Flagg sighed, trying not to imagine the fuss the House and Senate were going to create once they got wind of this.

"I can't make any promises. Even if we can hammer out an agreement, there's no guarantee that it will be ratified by the Senate-all I can do is negotiate it, not make it legal." He said. "For now, all I can do is discuss this with my advisors…and figuring things out will take time, no matter what we do."

Optimus understood- as much as he hated it, bureaucracy in any form moved slowly no matter what planet you were on. "I understand. Take what time you need."

XXXXXX

David Hollander was a man who knew when things were against him. He needed to know such things in order to avoid making stupid mistakes that would lose Skywatch tons of money and resources, like Joshua Red had been doing a lot as of late. They were fighting against mechanical aliens that could transform into other machines and such, harboring weaponry they could only dream of. They needed to be smart about the decisions they made. Unfortunately, it seemed that they no longer had the luxury of secrecy to keep the enemies at bay.

"Another base destroyed." Hollander sighed as read the report given to him by one of his agents. "They're coming at us in force."

"Doctor Howards suggested that these attacks are in retaliation of us using Seekers one and two, who are believed to be of the same faction." Said Aaron Jackson, who stood at attention before the new Director of Skywatch. "They big gray one with the cannon on his arm is their leader."

"A leader who knows where to hit us hard. This latest attack just took out an important source of munitions for Skywatch." Hollander grumbled and laced his fingers together to give Jackson a hard stare. "We need to regroup and get our act together before these aliens tear us apart one by one. This is an open declaration of war on Skywatch personally, and I'm not going to back down from a challenge like this."

"Sir, what about the negotiations? The president is considering forming an alliance with the other faction of NBEs." Jackson said.

"If Flagg's smart, he'd put those things on a leash to keep them out of our crosshairs, but we're not exactly seen in a favorable light by the man thanks to Red's blunders." Hollander replied. "Hopefully, if this treaty does come to pass, it'll give us a chance to properly study their technology and know exactly how to beat them."

"You're not really entertaining allying ourselves with them, sir." Jackson actually looked insulted and Hollander gave a small smile at that.

"I'd sooner trust those monsters in Karaba than I'd trust those so-called Autobots." He said. "As far as I'm concerned, to both sides we're just collateral damage, no matter how benevolent they seem. What we need to focus on is preparing for open conflict with them and we need to do that by learning everything we can about them."

"What about the aliens attacking us? These…Decepticons?" Jackson asked.

"For now, we'll have to manage however we can against them and hope they don't find us as easily as they found Red. As of today, Skywatch is Terra's sole defense against these warring extraterrestrials and if we fall, the world falls with us." Hollander stood up and looked out the window. "We need to show the universe that Terra bows down to no one, organic or mechanical."

* * *

 **I know I said last chapter that this chapter was going to focus on Gina and OZ, but that's coming in the last chapter...promise. Flagg is a real dude from GI Joe whose rank surpasses even Hawk and Colton. He even has an aircraft carrier named after him! Notice how I also changed him from President Colton, so take note of that. The Cons start a turf war with Skywatch and the new management isn't taking that lightly. The Autobots open negotiations with the Delpoi government. And everything kicks off in the final chapter of this three shot story, where Gina and friends fight OZ and their new line of talos in the bowels of an ancient ruin! Be sure to check out the official Transformers Titan website on wordpress. Thanks for reading and please leave a review!**


	3. Secret Origins

Secret Origins

Pisces was not a man who was ruled by his emotions. He was a scientist, emotions had no place in that field, unless you count the passion he had for his work as an emotion. He knew from experience that emotions clouded one's judgment and made them blind to their mistakes and limitations. Pisces considered himself a master of his emotions, but he knew he wasn't infallible. He did feel fear, and this was one of those rare times he felt afraid.

" _I am disappointed in you, Pisces."_

The cold, stony reprimand came from Ophiuchus, Lord Commander of the Zodiac and supreme leader of OZ. hearing her say that was like taking a large icicle to his heart and having it carved out of his chest. Her face was clad in a steel, featureless mask that outlined her facial features and hid her identity, which he was looking at through the video monitor in the teleconference room. Pisces could not bring himself to look at her fully, not when she was this displeased with him.

" _You are many things, Pisces, but stupid is not one of them. I expected you to have more self control than Aries and Aquarius, but apparently my faith was misplaced."_ Ophiuchus' tone was calm, but her words were scathing. _"Was it misplaced, Pisces?"_

"No, Ophiuchus. It's just…" Pisces cleared his throat to speak clearly. "We had a tactical advantage. We still have the coordinates of the Ark and Nemesis-"

" _Which is moot now that Aries had tipped our hand early. Perhaps if you didn't go against my orders to leave the child be and kidnapped him along with the Autobot, then that same child wouldn't have made things go so badly. We may have an advantage, but our trump card has been played…and you lost."_ She said coldly. _"Your defeat at Optimus Prime's hands notwithstanding, you also lost us a Septentrion airship. Those aren't cheap, Pisces!"_

"I know, Ophiuchus and I apologize for my failure. It won't happen again."

Ophiuchus didn't say anything for several seconds, merely staring at Pisces with her unreadable gaze until he began to feel uncomfortable from her stare. When it became unbearable, she spoke again.

" _We have two of our kin dead and an alien race declaring war on us. And Thornment's actions may have caused this conflict to go public and cause the cybertronians to do something rash"_

"I understand. I've made sure those fools in Skywatch are scratching their heads so they don't discover our involvement in the derailing of their Thunder Lizard program. They've taken the full scrutiny of the executive branch and after the Decepticons torched one of their bases-"

" _I could care less for those ineffectual morons at Skywatch! What I care about is the consequences of this invasion. I'm already getting reports of the Autobots opening diplomatic relations with the Helic government, and if they go public, going against them will be even more difficult! For the time being, I want you to cease operations against them until things calm down. Any missions you will take will be issued directly from myself and Sagittarius."_

"Yes, ma'am." Pisces nodded.

" _Good. Scorpio will fill you in on your next mission. Carry them out with the efficiency you're supposedly known for and do not disappoint me again."_

Ophiuchus' face vanished as the screen went dark, leaving Pisces standing alone in the darkness.

Outside, Scorpio jumped when Pisces pushed the doors open with enough force to nearly tear them off their hinges. He jumped up from his seat and jogged after Pisces as he marched angrily down the hall.

"I take it the meeting didn't go very well?" Scorpio asked, secretly enjoying the normally smug scientist's displeasure. The cold glare he got in return actually made him pause.

"Don't start with me, Scorpio." Pisces growled.

Scorpio smirked and handed Pisces a folder he was given during his meeting with Ophiuchus. "New orders; we are to investigate a newly uncovered Arian ruin in central Anea. According to Sagittarius, this site might have some new toys for us to play with."

"So she has us looking at ancient burial grounds and defunct cities? Ophiuchus has gotten creative in her punishments." Pisces grumbled.

"In addition to that, I also got a message from Leo." Scorpio continued. "He's sending that strike team of his over to help us with the excavation, and they're bringing the experimental Trinity talos with them."

Pisces allowed himself a little smirk as he entered the main lobby of the building his team was operating in. "Well, at least something's going right on this god forsaken night."

XXXXXX

"I've consulted with my advisors," President Flagg said. He and Optimus Prime met at the same location they had their negotiations, but it was just the two of them this time. "I've heard every opinion about all of this; disbelief about your intentions, suggestions that we go after the lot of you, even a few who refuse to believe the evidence. But…all of them think that if this is genuine, we can't easily pass it up." He looked up towards the being before him and said, "We are willing to negotiate."

"Thank you, Mr. President." Optimus Prime nodded. "I hope that we are able to come to agreeable terms."

"As do I," The president replied. "Now then, as for your requests…" He picked up a small slip of paper and read off, "We're willing to allow the construction of a base in Republic territory. Colonel Barnett will have a list of suitable sites ready for you within the next forty-eight hours."

"My thanks." Said Optimus.

The president nodded and continued, "You also asked for the assistance of the Helic Republic military and resources to locate these stasis panels of yours. Considering there aren't that many to look for in the first place, I believe that is something we can accomplish. In return, you offer to aid us in advancing cybernetics, energy production and space travel."

"Not all at once, and not without assistance." Optimus promised. "We'll help with medium advancements over time, small things here and there. Humanity has made great strides on its own; we'd just be giving an extra push."

"Define an 'extra push'." The president said.

"Your space program is, while impressive, costly." Prime explained. "We can help you cut costs; better fuels, better materials, better ship designs overall with a higher margin of safety. Artificial limbs are already at a level where people have most of their original capabilities; we can improve that. You'd get a great deal for very little cost and a small amount of time."

The president looked over the terms again, sifting through them in his mind. He looked up towards his fellow leader and said, "You'll promise to stay out of our affairs, of course?"

"Under normal circumstances, we'll do so." Prime replied. "We'll do everything in our power to stay out of human affairs. We won't help you wage wars or make policy. Should a natural disaster strike and you ask for our assistance, we'll do so, but that will be the only case where we interfere."

President Flagg gave a light smile, the first one since they first began talking. "I think I can agree to that."

XXXXXX

Theodore Harkins focused hard on the boulder before him. His gaze on it was unwavering as his eyes glowed lightning blue and an energy halo formed around his body. Sparks of energy touched the stone, but didn't obliterate it as a distortion halo normally would. Sweat trailed down his forehead as he concentrated hard on only altering the stone, not destroying it. He'd done this numerous times in the past, but it only got marginally easier each time he performed this trick. Finally, when he saw cracks start to form on the stone, he stopped and took a step back.

"Hmm," Theodore hummed, impressed at his work. The granite boulder that stood before him was now black and glossy like glass, but also warped in a spiral pattern as if it was superheated and molded. It wasn't granite anymore; it looked something akin to onyx. "I'd say this was a success."

A loud boom sounded just a few feet from him and he turned to see his daughter, Gina, get blown back on her butt from the boulder she unintentionally exploded. She groaned and slapped her hands on the ground angrily.

"Bulkheads and balderdash, this is infuriating!" Gina huffed and crossed her arms. "Why aren't I getting this?"

"Maybe it depends on your constitution, sweetheart. Your powers haven't fully developed and you aren't fully grown." Theo said as he helped Gina to her feet. "There's still a lot we don't know about being inhumans."

It had become something of an unspoken competition between father and daughter to test the limits of their inhuman powers. They needed to see exactly what they could do with this distortion halo ability, among other things, and it also doubled as some father/daughter time for the two of them. Theo had learned that the distortion halo can actually reshape physical matter if the energy was concentrated enough. He had slowly been able to change stone into glass and solidify wood and water the same way as well. The properties of the newly made mineral was similar to onyx and obsidian, but translucent like glass. It was an arduous process, but Theo was slowly getting the hang of it.

Gina, however, was only able to obliterate objects. She was the first and only child inhuman on the planet, and thus things were even more new to her than the inhumans in general. The Catalyst that changes normal humans into inhumans had granted her incredible physical abilities and the changes were becoming more evident as she grew (she was now a few inches taller than Darren and Annie and sported some serious muscle, like she was a pro tennis player of something). Her distortion halos could destroy objects, but she lacked the fine motor control to properly change the state of matter from one form to another. It was starting to get on her nerves.

"I know, but I need to better control the distortion halo to avoid blowing up my friends in the field." Gina sighed and looked at Sara. "Sara, what's the score?"

Sara, the android who was studying the newly reshaped stone Theo had finished, checked off something on her datapad and said, "That's 7-0, Gina. Your father is still undefeated. If it makes you feel any better, you're still a winner to me."

"Thank you, Sara." Gina smiled and grinned at her father. "You may have won this match, but I still have the love of my trusty assistant!"

"And I have the love of you and your mother." Theo pulled Gina in for a hug and ruffled her hair, making her grumble. "Oh, and Gina, weren't you supposed to be somewhere later today?"

"Yeah, I'm heading out with Tomahawk, Moonracer and Arcee to explore this sweet Arian ruin Teletran-1 found." Gina walked over to her bag and caught the bottled water Sara tossed her way. "It's called Luxor, and the main temple actually runs deep underground, hollowed out and remodeled into something like an ancient library. With spring reaching its end, I'm suddenly finding myself with a lot more free time these days."

That was mainly because the Autobots were busy with negotiating with the Helic government. The Dynobots' rampage in Fallon and the all-out heavy metal war in the Epsilon Holdings complex was too much to properly cover up and not everyone was buying the out of control talos excuse. Optimus had put all major operations on hold until they could sort things out with the president, and that meant the kids had to keep a low profile. Colonel Barnett knew of the childrens' involvement with the Autobots, but not everything. If he knew about their role in taking part in the battles against the Decepticons using advanced talos, then he was obligated to inform his superiors about that, and that would start a whole slew of issues the Autobots didn't want to deal with.

"You be careful, then. Watch each other's backs and don't linger too long if it get's dangerous over there." Theo told his daughter, who frowned.

"I was actually hoping that you would come with us." Gina said.

"Me? I thought you'd want to spend time with your friends." He said.

"Yeah, but I also want to spend time with you too." Gina hugged her father around his middle. "We've spent three years apart. The least we can do is have our own archaeological expedition together."

Theo smiled and hugged his daughter back. He may have been home for over two months, but getting hugs from his wife and daughter was something he'll never get tired of. "I would love to come along with you, Gina."

On the side, Sara watched the father/daughter bonding moment with a small smile, feeling that familiar warmth in her chest that she knew to be love. If love was like this, then she couldn't get enough of it.

XXXXXX

Pisces and Scorpio waited for the airship carrying their new talos prototypes to arrive at the airfield in one of their regional bases in Tamuzi, Egyptia. They had no concrete time table for their mission, but Pisces liked to get a head start on the mission as soon as possible. Arian structures were rare and much sought after, intact ruins even more so. By rights, they would've already headed towards the temple and secured it, but the new talos were supposed to be field tested by them as per orders by Ophiuchus. Pisces wouldn't have had a problem with this if it weren't for the fact that the airship in question was over thirty minutes late.

"You know, I don't know why I'm still surprised that Leo is still doing his usual shit today." Scorpio sighed. "He would do this to us."

"I'm going to rip his spine out through his mouth when this is over with." Pisces growled. "I'm really not in the mood for his stupidity right now. We're wasting valuable time on a very crucial mission!"

"You know, you've been rather snippy lately since we got back to base. This is highly unusual for you." Scorpio pointed out. "I know getting told off by Ophiuchus was hard to handle, but don't let it throw you off your game. Think of it this way, at least it wasn't Sagittarius."

Pisces opened his mouth to throw an insult Scorpio's way, but he thought about it and calmed down. "You're right. Anything's better than looking at Sagittarius's smug face."

Their conversation was interrupted by loud sirens signaling the approach of oncoming aircraft. They looked up and saw a pitch black airship coated in stealth paint to avoid detection slowly hovering to the ground. The airship lacked any other symbol or logo aside from the stylized lion's head painted on the side of the balloon. Pisces and Scorpio waited for the airship to land before walking over to the gondola, where there were people already disembarking off the vessel. One of the last people off the airship was the man they were scheduled to meet, the Zodiac general Leo.

Leo was a scruffy looking man with long, spiky mahogany hair with a bandana tied around his forehead. He had a clean shaven beard and narrow auburn eyes that looked more at home on a predator. Clad in his unkept pilot's uniform, Leo looked more like a bandit from the Middle East than a proud general of the largest terrorist organization in the world. Looking at Pisces and Scorpio, he gave them a full sharp toothed grin and held his arms out as if to hug them.

"Well, look who it is," Leo laughed. "The witless wonders, alive and well. How the hell you guys survived that clusterfuck when Aries and Aquarius were smoked is beyond me, but it's good to see you again."

"Spare us the pleasantries, Leo, time is of the essence." Pisces said dryly. "Did you bring the talos?"

"They're in the cargo plane right behind the airship. Three fully complete prototypes, ready and waiting for a chance to kill some aliens." Leo grinned.

Pisces was mentally relieved at that. Those prototypes were the culmination of an exchange in information between OZ and the Minicon renegades who joined them in an attempt to get even with their larger cousins. In the months following their initial meeting, OZ had benefitted greatly from this upgrade. The MASS device worked wonders, talos weaponry was more devastating than ever, new forms of heavy artillery vehicles were being made along with advanced aircraft, and new talos were built as well.

Leo was heading the Throne program, which was the name of the series of talos that would utilize the new power source and weapons systems gained from the Minicons' involvement, currently numbering at three in total. He also personally oversaw the training of the pilots who would operate the new talos, seeing them as his little "killers". Pisces couldn't help but be a little disturbed at how invested Leo was in the professional and personal lives of the pilots, who he personally trained both in talos piloting and combat. Say what you want about the man, but Leo was a trained killer through and through.

"So when do we head out?" Leo asked in his gravelly voice. "My trigger finger's itchin'."

"We move out at once. We're burning daylight and we risk unwanted visitors dropping in on our dig site." Pisces said. "Leo, you will be hanging back commanding the Throne unit-"

"Kitty Kat!" A girlish voice squealed. A moment later, an attractive red haired girl clad in a white tank top and shorts with white and red boots ran down the bridge and jumped onto Leo's back. "Kitty, Joseph's being mean to me!"

"I was not!" A dark skinned young man with dark black hair wearing a skin tight sleeveless white shirt and pants ran down after the girl with a look of anger on his face. "That little brat almost broke my O-Pod!"

"Did not!" The girl yelled back.

"Don't lie about it, Nena. Johann saw it happen!"

"Like he's gonna pick your side over cute little me." The girl retorted.

"Cute?! You are a troll!"

"Take that back!"

"Nena! Joseph!"

One last person appeared from the airship, a light skinned young man, around seventeen, who had dark blue hair calmly walked down the plank glaring at the other kids. "You're in the presence of our superiors! Show some respect!"

"Huh?" The odd pair blinked and slowly turned to Pisces and Scorpio as if noticing them for the first time. They blushed and jumped off Leo, standing at attention. "Sorry, sirs!"

"Who are they?" Scorpio asked.

"They're the Throne pilots I trained. Meet Team Trinity," Leo smiled and waved the oldest pilot over. "This is their leader, Johann Trinity. These are his brother and sister, Joseph and Nena."

"They are the pilots?" Pisces looked at the three teens before him. They were all kids! Johann was the only one who could be classified as a teenager, while Joseph and Nena didn't even look sixteen. How could these young ones be the new pilots for OZ's new weapons? "Surely you're joking."

"He's not joking, sir." Johann said, stepping forward. "General Leo has trained us extensively in armed and unarmed combat. He's trained us to the letter and we're his chosen soldiers to bring OZ to victory."

"The kid's right. They're my pride and joy." Leo said, wrapping an arm around Joseph and Nena. "They're from my little militia over in Azadistan. Soldiers of god chosen for a glorious cause."

"Of course." Scorpio said distastefully. He forgot about Leo's other little "hobby".

"As long as they can perform, I don't care if they were stolen from their cribs at birth." Pisces said coldly. He looked up and saw the cargo plane approaching the landing strip. "The talos are here. Now we can finally get this operation started."

XXXXXX

The Temple of Luxor was one of the world's most intact and largest Arian ruin in the Anean continent, but it remained largely unknown to the wider public and even the archaeological community. This was because the temple hadn't even been officially discovered yet. Gina had found it by herself using the information Sara downloaded from archives deep within Civ-Alpha, another ruin of similar construction that was built not by human hands, but reptilian ones.

The temple looked like an ancient library from the surface, but that was only the entrance. In truth, the temple ran for miles underground, kept stable by gigantic pillars and sectioned off into various chambers that might possibly hold many secrets to Terra's past.

Penny looked up at the seemingly unassuming temple. Clad in a long dark green outfit that left her arms bare and a shorts with hiking boots, Penny was dressed for exploring and fashion. On her hips were two specially made crossbows with a holster of arrows and arrowheads she brought along in addition to her backpack of supplies. It was an odd thing to bring along, but these arrows were made for fighting both terran and alien threats, so she was prepared.

"I can't believe you found this all by yourself." Penny huffed, hands on her hips. "And you got all info from those old computers back in Civ-Alpha?"

"Yeah, though most of the computers were destroyed, there were at least two that were still working. It was a pain translating the coordinates, but it led me here." Gina said. "This is the temple of Luxor, another facility made by the Saurians."

The Saurians were Gina's name for the ancient reptilian race the Shadows, extra-dimensional beings from a shadow dimension over layering theirs, had dealings with. Gina theorized that they were once Terra's most intelligent species, living in the age of dinosaurs and sporting advanced technology and science thanks to the intervention of the Shadows. All this was gleaned from what she learned from temporarily melding with the Shadows when they encountered each other in Civ-Alpha.

"And the best part is that we don't have to worry about any freaky shadow demons from another dimension trying to cut us open!" Moonracer chirped.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Tomahawk blinked.

"It's a long story," Arcee gave Tomahawk a sympathetic smile. "Long story short, don't let Gina organize girls' day outs."

"It was one time!" Gina yelled.

Theo walked up to the front steps of the temple and took it all in. All of this had been sitting here, untouched for thousands, possibly millions of years, and no one had even laid eyes upon it. "I never thought I'd be a part of something this historical. Gina, you may have just made a world changing discovery."

Gina blushed and looked down at her palm computer. "Please, dad, I'm just doing my part for archaeology. We're onto something big here and I'd be a fool not to look further into it.

Sara blinked as her sensors detected something a few miles away. "Gina, I'm detecting an energy signature not too far from here." She pointed northeast of the temple. "It…appears to be a large deposit of energon, very potent. Just a little ways off from here."

Arcee sighed. "Duty calls."

"Aw, can't we stay and help Gina out exploring this place?" Moonracer whined.

"Sorry, Moonracer, but we can't turn up free energon. Especially one as potent as this." Tomahawk smiled and patted the younger femme on the back. "Besides, I don't think we'll be able to fit underground."

"You're right." Moonracer grumbled.

"Don't worry, Moonracer, I will be sure to retrieve a souvenir for you." Sara said, earning a wide grin from the cyan and chrome femme.

"Thank you, Sara!"

The three Autobots changed to vehicle mode and drove (flew in Tomahawk's case) towards where Sara detected the energy signature. Penny gave Sara a smiled and nudged her arm.

"I'm liking this new side to you." Penny grinned. "Comes to show that you don't need to be human to have a soul."

Sara said nothing, but the small smile she gave was enough for her.

XXXXXX

A few miles away, Pisces and Scorpio were also entering a structure of similar construction, though this temple looked more like a miniature pyramid than the library-esque design the Luxor temple had. With their forces having secured the area, the two Zodiac general entered the temple and went downward, entering a massive chamber deep underground that looked like maze to the untrained eye.

"This is glorious," Pisces breathed. "Just glorious."

"But a bit impractical. I don't know why these halls are so big, or why they're four sub-levels reaching so deep underground." Scorpio said. "A bit odd for someone who wanted to be buried here without interruption."

"Then perhaps this isn't a tomb as we thought of it, but something else entirely." Pisces said, looking around. The first sub-level was rather unassuming and plain to the eye without anything of note. "As it is, this level of construction and detail would be impossible given the level of technology they had back then, even with the aid of the golems. This…this is different, Scorpio."

" _Yo, chief, we've got a situation up here."_ Leo's gruff voice abruptly ruined the moment, making Pisces growl.

"What is it, Leo?" Pisces growled. "You're ruining the moment!"

" _Sensors just picked up three energon sigs a few miles off from here. Three of 'em, all Autobots."_ Leo said.

Scorpio frowned. "What are the Autobots doing this far out in Tamuzi? There's no energon around here."

" _Who cares? Can I torch 'em, Pisces? I want in on some of the fun before I get shipped back to the Middle East."_

"Go right ahead, Leo. Have the Trinity Team deal with them." Pisces said. "And be sure to record all of it for…future reference."

" _Aye, aye, captain."_ Leo grinned and signed off.

"It's always them, isn't it?" Scorpio grunted. "Even when we're not looking for them, they always find us. How unlucky is that…"

Scorpio trailed off as he looked at Pisces' expression. It was one of bloodthirsty glee with an equally savage grin. Such an expression was alien on the normally calm and stoic scientist Pisces usually was, and it made him look more disturbing. His dark brown eyes were glowing bright amber and his fists were clenched to the point of drawing blood.

"On the contrary, Scorpio, I think Lady Luck is smiling down on us today." Pisces said eagerly. "If those Autobots are here, then their human friends are not far behind. And I'm itching for some payback for the humiliation they made me suffer."

XXXXXX

The three Autobot femmes tracked the energon signal a few miles away from where the temple was. It wasn't a long travel there, but something seemed a bit off. Arcee and Tomahawk noted how this area lacked any form of energon, even small deposits. A single point of energon suddenly popping up in a dead zone seemed rather strange…and suspicious. Tomahawk kept an eye out while Arcee and Moonracer reached a series of abstract rock formations.

"It should be around here somewhere. We're almost on top of it." Tomahawk said. She followed the sisters deep into a canyon with stone bridges crisscrossing the length of the canyon like a spider web. She changed to bipedal form and landed on the lower bridges. "Do you guys see anything?"

"Nope, nothing here." Moonracer said, also transforming to robot mode. She looked around a bit before spotting something near the mouth of the canyon. "Wait, I found something…"

There was a device buried in the ground giving off steady electromagnetic pulses. Arcee took a closer look and was shocked to see they coincided with the energon pulsations she was detecting. Moonracer also froze up, remembering Bumblebee encountering a similar thing.

"Girls, we gotta bounce!" Moonracer exclaimed. "It's a trap!"

She barely finished saying trap when the device exploded along with the immediate area. Shape charges that were designed to do maximum damage were implanted within the rock and had detonated from a remote signal. Arcee and Moonracer were blasted away, taking the brunt of the explosions. They quickly changed forms and drove away as more charges exploded behind them, sending large pieces of rock flying everywhere.

"Arcee, Moonracer!" Tomahawk exclaimed. She lowered herself to the ground to look for her friends. "Are you-"

Tomahawk was suddenly hit by a blue energy beam that hit her in the side. Crying out, she was blasted out of the sky and slammed into the canyon wall, changing forms and crashing to the ground after painfully screeching along the rocks.

From his firing position two miles away, a pitch black talos with a thin frame straightened its posture as its shoulder cannon folded onto its back. Johann grinned and called his brother and sister.

"The trap worked like a charm." He reported. "All three Autobots are dazed and hurt."

" _The perfect kind of prey."_ Nena hummed.

" _Nice shot, Johann!"_ Joseph praised. _"Can we move in, now?"_

"Yes, Joseph, you're with me. Nena, hang back until you see an opening. We can't let those bozos regroup and counterattack." Johann ordered his team. "Let's show the Zodiac we're worthy of ushering in OZ's future for humanity!"

XXXXXX

"Do you think all Saurian buildings are built deep into the ground like this?" Penny asked as the team entered one of the large chambers that were found throughout the temple. "Civ-Alpha was buried inside a mountain and we barely got past the second level last time we were there."

"I'm not making any theories until I can properly assess these ruins. We're talking about a highly advanced race of reptiles who pretty much mastered everything we're trying to do right now, so I'm not saying yes or no to anything, yet." Gina said.

As Gina initially predicted, the Luxor Temple had multiple levels, with the two middle ones being the largest. As there was nothing particularly special on the first level near the entrance, they went to the second level, which was probably the largest one in the whole area. It was one massive space, carved out of the tough rock deep underground and constructed with space and transportation in mind. Large pillars could be found along the far edges of the level, and staircases led to different chambers, winding down and up, alongside ramps that were probably made for transport carts or something similar.

"Gina, if these Saurians existed, then they must have been alive well before the Ice Age, even long before the rise of mammals on Terra." Theo said, looking at the massive structure around him. "Yet, this temple, these rooms, they're all in such perfect condition."

"The Saurians built their stuff to last. Given their relationship with the…Shadows, I'm inclined to believe that there is some method they've used to preserve at least most of their facilities." Sara said. "I can personally attest to that after encountering one of their machines."

"Please don't joke about that, Sara." Penny groaned, earning a small smile from the robot girl.

Gina smiled at the exchanged. It was refreshing to see her making jokes and smiling more, though her humor needed some work in not being too morbid. Glancing at her scanner, she ran it along the smooth, partially cracked walls to get some idea of what some of these chambers looked like. She came upon another chamber that was partially open a crack.

"What's this?" Gina muttered. Jogging over to the rusty door, Gina put her scanner away and grabbed the seam, using her inhuman strength to slowly pull it open. It took some muscle, but she managed to open it far enough that she was able to squeeze her body through.

Once inside, she looked around at the old, musty chamber that hadn't been opened in probably millennia. There was extremely old equipment that was so rusted over and broken down that she couldn't even tell what it was anymore. The outline of the chamber was still intact, and there seemed to be another room connected to the observation area. Walking past what she figured to be some window once, Gina walked into the other, larger room with five large stones in the center.

"Hello." Gina hummed pleasantly, pulling out her duster and lightly dusting off the round objects. Upon a closer look, she saw that the rocks were…purple. And they were far too smooth for be boulders fallen from the ceiling. Gina dusted it off some more, and revealed more of the object's smooth surface, round enough to look like an…"Egg?"

"Gina, are you in here?" Her father called out.

"In here, dad!" Gina said.

Theo, Penny and Sara assembled in the room she was in and Gina explained what she found. Penny raised an eyebrow and leaned in to study the strange objects further.

"You can't seriously think these are eggs." Penny said skeptically.

"It's true! Don't they look like overgrown reptile eggs, dad?"

Theo knelt down next to one of them and ran a hand along the spheres. "These eggs feel like tempered glass."

They did look like eggs, mainly those coming from a reptile, like a lizard or alligator. They were old, dusty, probably cracked with whatever was inside nothing but ashes at this point. It saddened Theo a bit when he thought of these unborn babies not being born, as a father it hit a soft spot in him.

"Definitely not a rock, then." Gina said and brought Sara closer. "Whatever was in these eggs had to be large, just look at the size of them!"

"Maybe they're Saurian eggs, and Saurians are larger than us." Penny said.

"Possibly," Gina said. "Considering all of them are cracked open like boiled eggs, I think it wouldn't hurt to take a peek inside."

"Gina, one of the eggs is undamaged." Sara noted.

"No one touch anything! I wanna see!" Gina almost ran Penny over in her rush to see the egg. She hopped next to Sara and peered down at the egg in the far corner of the bunch. The egg was completely untouched save for the web-like crack on the top of its shell. "Huh, it looks like a purple jellybean."

"Very astute, Gina." Penny rolled her eyes. "Sara, can you scan it to see if anything's still inside? Maybe we can get a good shot of a fossil or something."

"I can't do that, Penny." Sara said. "My scanners…they're not registering anything. The outer shell is deflecting x-rays and infrared vision."

"That's…not possible." Theo furrowed his brow.

"Nothing we've experienced up until now should be possible, Mr. Harkins." Sara said, trying to scan the egg with her optical sensors. "Even my internal scanners cannot pierce the shell, but I can see that the internal temperature of the egg is extremely cold-near below zero levels."

"I'm sorry, what?" Gina blinked. "Sara, despite everything I've seen and done, that's impossible even to me!"

"It's true. The temperature of the egg, or at least that of the inner shell, is absolute zero." Sara insisted. She narrowed her eyes as she noticed something else. "And what's peculiar is that we the egg seems to be absorbing ambient electromagnetic energy in the atmosphere."

"This is it, then. A product of Saurian technology and science." Gina breathed, her eyes sparkling as she looked upon the egg. Feeling curious, she took off her glove and ran her hand along the smooth surface of the egg. "Maybe we should take this baby back to the Ark. I'm sure Ratchet or Wheeljack might be interested in see-ouch!"

Gina flinched back with a deep red cut on her palm. Blood smeared on the cracked part of the egg she was rubbing. Theo quickly went over to his daughter. "Gina, are you okay?" He asked her. When she didn't immediately reply, he asked again. "Gina?"

"That shouldn't have happened." She muttered. "That…I shouldn't have gotten that cut at all."

"What do you mean?" Penny asked.

"Penny, inhumans have bone and muscle tissue three times denser than ordinary humans. I shattered the tip of a stainless steel knife on the tip of my finger while helping my mom cook last night." Gina looked at the egg and saw how a large smear of her blood was seeping into the cracks where the egg was. "That egg cut into my skin as if I wasn't a superhuman. Its material must be seriously sharp if it can do that. I must study it further!"

Sara shook her head. "Only you, Gina."

The moment was broken when they heard a loud explosion on the floor down below them. Startled, the group quickly left the chamber and out into the hall, where they saw smoke rising from a room down below them.

"What happened?" Penny asked.

"No clue, but we're going to find out." Gina said and leapt over the edge with her father. Sara gathered Penny into her arms and jumped down after them.

They all landed on the bridge leading to the smoking room and cautiously approached it, seeing that something had blown the old metal door to pieces. This wasn't some sudden malfunction from ancient equipment, someone wanted to get in. Sara went into weapon mode while Theo and Gina stood in front of Penny.

"There's no way anyone else could be here." Gina muttered. "We were the only ones to discover the temple."

"Maybe there's another opening we didn't see before?" Penny suggested.

"I…never thought of that before." Gina bit her lip. Sara narrowed her eyes.

"Gina, I'm detecting two heat signatures inside." She said. "They're…"

"No need to spoil the surprise, little girl. We were coming out anyway." A smooth voice said, making Theo and Gina freeze.

Pisces calmly walked out of the smoking hole they made in the doorway, looking no worse for wear in their black bodysuits. Gina felt her enraged gaze fall upon Pisces as she remembered everything he did to her father and Darren.

"Hello, Theodore, Gina, my two least favorite people in the world." Pisces said smiling, though there was no amount of happiness in that smile. "And you brought some friends, too. Good, more cattle for the slaughterhouse."

"What the hell are you doing here, Pisces?" Gina growled.

"Me? I should be asking you that question." Pisces said. "I can only assume you came in through another entrance, since running into you here is quite the surprise."

"You don't seem surprised to see us." Theo pointed out, his muscles tense in case the Zodiac tried anything.

"Yeah, that's because we caught wind of your robot friends on the surface." Pisces smirked. "We figured that if they're here, then you wouldn't be far behind. I'm so glad we were right."

"You have a lot of balls talking like you've accomplished something after we torched your headmaster operation." Gina hissed. "I imagine your other friends weren't happy at your little screw up."

"No thanks to you!" Pisces growled. "Don't worry, girl, I intend to pay you all back in full. As we speak, my special forces are hunting down those Autobot friends of yours with some new toys we brought along. While they have fun up there, I'll repay you for destroying almost three years of hard work!"

"You can try. And in the meantime, I'm going to make you pay for what you did to my dad and Darren!"

Gina sprinted forward, her powerful legs propelling her forward at great speeds, despite her father telling her to wait. Her eyes glowed with energy as she rushed at Pisces reached out to crush his skull in her hands. Pisces still had that infuriating smirk on his face as the girl ran to kill him, and didn't even flinch when a large figure came charging out of the room behind him, rushing past him and slamming a palm into Gina's face.

Gina felt something hard smash into her face and shattered her glasses, sending her to the ground on her back. Flipping back to her feet, Gina saw a large, tall blonde woman who stood at an impossible 10 feet rush at her and swing at her head. Gina ducked under the woman's powerful right hook and threw an uppercut at her chin, but the woman blocked her punch and backhanded her to the ground.

Sara flew forward at speeds rivaling a cheetah in full sprint and kicked the woman hard in the face with enough force to send the woman stumbling back. The woman growled and ran at Sara, but Theo summoned a distortion halo that made a piece of the ground block her punch.

"That's as far as you go!" Theo yelled, standing between his daughter and her attacker. Sara helped Gina to her feet.

"She's an inhuman." Gina said, wiping her bloody nose. That backhand she took would've shattered a normal human's skull, and she only had a sore and bloody nose.

The woman was taller than the three men in the room, very muscular, but not overly so, and had long blonde hair tied in a braid. She wore a dull green military uniform that was most likely fitted to suit her large size and hugged her tall form perfectly. Her crystal blue eyes glowed with energy as she stepped back into position beside Pisces.

"This is Klaudia, she's one of the first of a new breed of inhumans-an Uber." Pisces patted Klaudia's shoulder. "She's my insurance policy on this mission, to make sure any threats we come across are quickly pushed aside. Threats like you."

"You should've saved her for the Autobots." Gina said, standing beside her father. "Because she's not going to be enough to fight all of us."

"Big words for a little girl." Klaudia said. "Enough talk, let's fight!"

Gina didn't bother saying anything else. She only had eyes for Pisces; Aries and Aquarius were dead, but this man had to pay for what he did to the people she loved!

XXXXXX

Moonracer coughed up some dust that got in her mouth as she climbed out of the pile of rubble she was almost buried in. Arcee, who was just as dirty and dented as she was, helped her to her feet and asked if she was alright.

"I'm fine, sis, but I wanna know who shot at us!" Moonracer growled.

"It wasn't Decepticons, or we would've detected them by now." Arcee said.

"It wasn't," Tomahawk limped over to them, holding her damaged right arm as she walked out of the cloud of dust hanging over them. "It was a talos. I caught sight of a black talos before it fired a plasma beam at me."

"Talos, out here? What would that be doing…?" Arcee's expression darkened and she took out her blasters. "Never mind, I think I know who'd have the gall to do this. Weapons out, ladies, we're about to get company!"

Gliding through the smoke was Team Trinity, with Johann and Graham taking point. The Throne Eins, a black talos with a long range laser cannon, moved in first, firing the weapon at the Autobots. Tomahawk, Arcee and Moonracer scattered to let the blast hit the ground before Graham and Nena each took an opponent of their own. Johann focused on Arcee, landing on the ground and drawing a long, foldable sword emitting a low pitched hum.

"Come to papa!" Johann grinned and moved his Eins forward.

The black talos slashed at Arcee, who dodged the blade and watched it cut right through a stone column. She drew her sword and they clashed, their blades glancing off each other with sparks flying out. Arcee jumped back and hissed as Eins shot a beam from the cannon on its shoulder, grazing her right shoulder as she stumbled back.

'These things are faster than the Codarls.' Arcee thought.

Tomahawk and Moonracer were also meeting fierce resistance at the hands of the two talos. Tomahawk was fighting Joseph in his Zwei, a close range talos with a large sword with a solid pink beam coating the sharp blade. Tomahawk was no stranger to close combat, but the human's fighting style was very aggressive and he had her on the defensive as he attacked wildly. When his sword grazed her arm, she decided enough was enough and she split her helicopter rotors into two blades and attacked when he was preparing for another strike.

Joseph whistled as Tomahawk tried to cut him down, but he deftly avoided her strikes, mainly thanks to his OS's fast response time. Zwei dodged most of her strikes and tried to run her through, but Tomahawk dodged the blade and punched the talos in the chest, making it stumble back before rushing toward it. Joseph pressed the trigger on his control stick and two drones shaped like darts detached from the skirt of his talos' arsenal. They moved through the air like arrows, maneuvering via small jets that made them float and propel them forward, controlled by the Zwei's computer.

The two drones flanked Tomahawk and fired two beams into her back. Tomahawk hissed and spun around, but her blade already missed the drones as they spun around her shooting repeatedly. Joseph laughed and charged her, swinging his sword wildly.

"This is great! I can't believe we waited this long to use these toys on them!" He cackled.

Tomahawk took a hit to her shoulder and tumbled back, almost falling over the cliff but steadied herself. She ducked under a swipe of Joseph's sword, but a drone blew up the platform she was standing on, causing the rock to collapse under her weight and send her falling. Tomahawk fell back, but she managed to grab Zwei's wrist and pull Joseph along with her.

"I'm not going down alone!" She growled, spinning them around and kicking him into the rockslide while she transformed. "In fact, I'm not going anywhere!"

She flew around and shot two hellfire missiles at the drones. One missed, but she tagged the other one and blew it up. She turned her sights toward Joseph, who was trying to get his talos out of the rubble and targeted his position.

But before she could unleash a firestorm down on him, something big slammed into her and knocked her off balance. It was Moonracer. The two femmes crashed into the cliff and Tomahawk struggled to remain airborne while Moonracer crashed to the ground, covered in burns.

"Moonracer?!" Tomahawk exclaimed. She spotted something running at her and flew back, only to have her rotors blown off by a well-placed laser blast that knocked her into the canyon wall, slamming hard into the rock and screeching to a halt along the ground.

"Surprise!" Nena grinned, pointing her Drei's laser cannon at the downed Moonracer. "Let's see you dodge this, sniper."

XXXXXX

Deep underground, the battle between the Autobots' allies and the Zodiac started off with a bang…literally. Gina attacked first, lashing out with her halo effect at Klaudia, who deflected the attack with her own distortion halo. The two energies clashed with a tremendous flash of light, followed by an explosion that destroyed the bridge they were on.

Gina, Theo and Klaudia were taken down with the bridge, though even falls at this height would not seriously harm them. Pisces stood on the other side, looking smug like he just outsmarted the Harkins family, but he wasn't expecting Sara to suddenly leap over the broken bridge with Penny and slam her foot into his chest.

The kick knocked him off his feet and flew back into the room he was just in, skidding along the dry, rough ground on his back with a pained grunt. Sara put Penny down outside the room and walked toward Pisces, bringing out her proton blades. Pisces coughed and looked up at her.

"Ah, yes, Gina's little bodyguard." Pisces said and stood up. "I've seen the footage of your rampages. You've caused almost as much damage as your master."

"She is not my master. Gina is my friend." Sara said. "And your experiments almost killed her!"

"She should've stayed out of my way, then!" Pisces retorted, taking out a small golden rod from the holster on the back of his waist. "Interfering with OZ was the worst decision you brats could ever make in your worthless lives!"

"Shut it, four eyes!" Penny shot an arrow at Pisces' head, which he caught with ease.

"Really? A crossbow and arrow?" Pisces said condescendingly. "Grow up little-"

The crossbow bolt exploded in his face, blasting him off his feet and sending him slamming into a stone column. He suffered some burns along his chest and face, and part of his body suit was burnt, but surprisingly he survived with only minor burns. Sara used this chance to sprint forward and slash at his head.

Pisces dodged her at the last second and pressed a button on his rod, which extended into a pale blue staff with gold engravings on the ends. Sara brought her blades down on him, but he blocked them with his staff, which surprisingly blocked the beam coated blades completely. He grinned and kicked her away.

"Like it? It's just like that boy's fancy sword. Snagged it from Xing, belonged to a Xingese warrior who called himself the Monkey King." Pisces spun the staff around his body and pointed it at Sara. "Said to be as hard as diamond and just as strong. Want to test it?"

Sara scowled and lunged at Pisces. They clashed furiously, their weapons shooting sparks in their faces every time they crashed. They both moved at superhuman speeds trying to hit one another, but they were both too well trained for that. Sara ducked under a swipe from his staff and thrust her blade at his face, which he dodged and jumped back. Penny shot another explosive crossbow bolt at him, which he smacked aside to let it explode harmlessly beside him.

"You're annoying me, little girl!" Pisces slammed the butt of his staff into the ground to propel himself over at Penny.

"Crap!" Penny jumped aside as Pisces brought his staff down on her, and it slammed into the ground. The floor cracked and fractured from the sheer force of the blow, but Penny remained unharmed…for a few seconds.

Pisces flipped over to her and swung his staff at the crossbow in her hand, smashing it to pieces and breaking her hand. Penny fell back, clutching her broken hand as Pisces brought his staff down upon her, but Sara rushed in and slashed her blade into his side. Pisces felt a searing pain as the ionized plasma blade tore right through his body armor and into his flesh. Sara went to impale his chest, but he inched his torso to the side and smacked her in the face with a quick strike that made her stumble back.

Sara raised her hand and her palm split apart to reveal her palm blaster, shooting a laser blast at his face. Pisces blocked the blast, but stumbled back to a defensive position as Sara moved closer to Penny.

"Penny, are you alright?" Sara asked.

"Just peachy." Penny hissed, gingerly holding her hand.

Sara frowned and glared back at Pisces, who was grinning at them while twirling his staff around. "Stay back while I take care of him. He's too much for you right now."

"So you say." Penny gave her a pained grin. "Make it hurt for me, you got it?"

Sara nodded and stood up to face Pisces. The man was still bleeding from his side but he didn't seem very concerned about the wound.

"Ready for another go, android?" Pisces smirked. "Your friend won't interfere with us this time."

Sara said nothing. She simply deployed her vibro-blades and charged at him. Gina may not have the pleasure of killing him, but she was certainly going to get the job done.

XXXXXX

While Sara and Pisces were fighting on the upper levels, Gina and Theo were already in the midst of fighting Klaudia, OZ's inhuman soldier.

They fell several feet deeper into the ruins, falling at speeds that would kill a normal human, but they weren't too concerned about that. Klaudia pushed off a wall to propel herself at the two inhumans she was supposed to kill, her eyes glowing. Gina grabbed her father's arm and used a small halo effect to create an energy discharge that propelled them onto a balcony to dodge her charge. Klaudia spun around and fired a halo effect at them, generating a massive energy burst that destroyed the entire floor they were standing on.

"Watch out!" Theo used his own halo effect to negate Klaudia's more powerful discharge, but the force of the attack blew them both back through a wall.

Klaudia didn't even wait for the flames to die down before she charged right through the hole she made to pursue her prey. The minute she stepped into the chamber, Gina landed in front of her and activated her tractor beam gauntlets.

"Eat this!"

Putting her gauntlet's settings on high, Gina aimed to shoot Klaudia away from them with enough magnetic force to rival the pressure of a mountain. However, Klaudia was no simple human, or even inhuman. She was an Uber, the pinnacle of inhuman genetics, and not even the full force of Gina's tractor beam gauntlets could make her budge from her spot.

Digging her feet into the ground, Klaudia braced herself against the powerful magnetic force that pushed against her body. It was enough force to pulverize bones and completely vaporize bodily fluids, but she held strong against Gina's assault. As for Gina, the repelling force of her gauntlets caused her to go flying back at the same speed thanks to the force of the magnetic push she used against Klaudia.

Theo rushed behind his daughter and caught her with a grunt, stumbling back before steadying himself. "Gina, are you alright?"

"Y-Yeah." Gina stammered, staring shocked at Klaudia, who barely looked winded from that powerful assault. "Dad, she just took enough pressure to rival the planet's gravitational field!"

"Pisces really did it. He's made his ultimate inhuman." Theo growled and stood up. "Direct confrontation won't do it here. We can't match her power."

"Jinkies…" Gina bit her lip, thinking of something to help them out here.

"Are you done, yet?"

They Harkins' duo looked at Klaudia, who had spoken. Her voice, elegant and womanly, with a Belkan accent, had a hard edge to it, like that of a hardened soldier. Her expression was hard as stone as she addressed them.

"It doesn't matter what you two do, it will end the same way. You'll only exhaust yourselves trying to match my power." She said. "It's better to just surrender. I'll make your deaths quick."

"Not going to happen." Theo said. "Humans aren't the type of creatures to just roll over and die when things get tough."

"Brave words for a scholar." Her words weren't scathing, just pitying.

Without another word, Klaudia kicked off the ground and sprinted at them. Theo got ready to evade, but Gina was already moving…straight towards Klaudia!

"Gina!" Theo cried out.

Gina ran at Klaudia at full speed and leapt over the woman. She landed on Klaudia's back and slammed her fists right into Klaudia's ears. This activated another one of Gina's joint inventions she made with Roll Bar…sonic disruptors.

Disguised as rings, they could emit high pitched sounds that could disrupt a person's equilibrium and make this lose their sense of balance. At close range, it could paralyze a person on the spot, and turned on at full blast, completely destroy their ear drums and make them go deaf. Gina didn't hesitate to unleash the full force of the sonic disruptors on Klaudia.

Klaudia grunted in pain as her ears were assaulted by a terrible sonic assault that rattled her brain and made her stumble onto her face. The high pitched screech rang through her head and made her eyeballs shake in her skull. Her teeth shook like window panes about to shatter and her nose started bleeding. Unable to hear herself screaming, Klaudia blindly reached back and grabbed Gina's arm, swinging the girl over her shoulder and slamming her into the ground.

Klaudia raised her fists to crush Gina's skull, but Theo blasted her face with an energy ball that blinded her. Instinctively, she lashed out with a palm thrust that hit Theo in the chest and sent him crashing through a wall. Klaudia turned her attention back to Gina, who was already on her knees preparing to attack. The OZ soldier scowled and began generating a halo effect to annihilate the girl, but Gina had jumped back up and slashed at her throat with something sharp. Klaudia paid it no mind…until she felt sharp pain in her throat.

"What?" Klaudia put a hand to her throat and her fingers came back stained red. There was a shallow cut on her neck!

Gina smirked as she finally cracked Klaudia's iron-strong expression. During her free time training with her physical abilities, Gina had learned that, though tough enough to withstand some small arms fire, inhuman skin was not completely invulnerable. Sharp objects of sufficient density like diamond or adamantium were proven to do the trick when Gina tested the materials on herself (in secret, of course) and she learned to use her distortion halo effect to create a material similar to diamond that was sharp and dense enough to pierce inhuman skin.

Granted, it would have been nice if she didn't just leave a shallow cut in Klaudia's skin, but at least she was getting somewhere.

"You little bitch." Klaudia growled.

"You shouldn't have underestimated me, then." Gina shot back.

Klaudia charged at her like a raging bull, slamming her shoulder into Gina's chest and throwing her into the wall. She raised a large fist to cave Gina's face in, but three more energy spheres exploded along her spine. Howling, she spun around and flung her arm back, trying to smash her attacker's head apart. Theo, who had used his attack to distract her, jumped back as she rushed at him.

Gina pushed herself out of the hole her body made in the wall and lunged at Klaudia, also deploying her own halo effect on Klaudia's legs.

Attacked from both sides, Klaudia roared and slammed her hands into the ground, creating a ring of energy around her body. With a mighty heave, she forced her distortion halo to explode outward, blasting Gina and Theo away and completely destroying the floor they were standing on, causing all three inhumans to go tumbling down into the darkness below.

XXXXXX

Nena charged up her unit's beam cannon, ready to blast a hole in Tomahawk's chest. But just before she pressed the button, a bullet lodged itself into the barrel of the cannon, causing an energy build up that exploded the cannon.

"What?!" Nena growled as she zeroed in on Moonracer, who had fired a shot right over Tomahawk's shoulder at her. "You little bitch! I'll tear you apart!"

"You won't do a damn thing!"

Tomahawk leapt into the air and activated her jump boosters, propelling herself forward to slam into the Drei and then flew upwards, dragging the talos along the valley wall through the rock. Rocks pelted the Drei as it had heavy boulders slamming into its armor, and Nena tried to knock Tomahawk off her.

"Nena!" Joseph exclaimed and leapt at the two fighters, drawing his buster sword. "I got you!"

Tomahawk saw the Zwei leaping at her and pulled the Drei in front of her. Joseph, who was already swinging his sword, was unable to stop, but he managed to angle the blade so that it only severed the Drei's left arm. Tomahawk kicked the talos into the Zwei and drew her helicopter blades, slashing at Zwei's head. In one clean stroke, she severed the Zwei's head, completely destroying the machine's camera view before launching a downward kick that threw both talos to the ground.

"Joseph, Nena!" Graham scowled and pointed his beam cannon at Tomahawk. "You filthy-"

Arcee rammed into his talos and sent them both tumbling over the cliff and down the rocky slope. Locked in a constant grapple, they were unable to slow their descent, and they bounced and crashed against the sharp rocks that tore off pieces of armor and did almost as much damage as their fight. Eventually Graham was able to kick Arcee off just as they hit the bottom of the slope in a cloud of dust and raining rocks.

Arcee groaned and slowly pushed herself up to her knees. That fall broke more than just her armor and she knew that something was broken, probably her arm. Coughing up dust, she got to her feet-only to get hit in the shoulder by a laser blast that knocked her over. The Eins slowly walked over to her, pointing its beam gun at her head as it struggled to remain standing.

"That was a dirty move, alien." Graham growled. That tumble nearly dislodged a lot of important components in his talos' servo-motor system and he had to gingerly move his talos or risk losing something important. "You made the wrong move messing with my siblings."

"Same to you, pal." Arcee replied and threw a clump of dust as the Eins' face.

Graham cursed as his vision was clouded by dust and shot at the Autobot. Arcee rolled to the side and leapt at Graham, kicking the gun out of his hand and slashing at his cockpit with her sword. The blade tore through the thick armor plating of the Eins' torso and revealed the young man inside.

'He's just a teenager!' Arcee thought surprised.

One of the Zwei's Fang drones shot at Arcee, hitting her in the back and allowing Graham to smack her aside. With his talos in the state it was in, he had to play it safely, and that meant regrouping with his team.

"Joseph, Nena, are you two okay?" He asked.

" _Joseph cut off my fucking arm!"_ Nena raged over the comm.

" _That thing was using you as a shield. Did you want me to cut you in half down the middle?"_ joseph retorted.

Joseph was still fighting Tomahawk, and the two fighters were locked in close combat without much progress in winning. Nena was having a harder time fighting with only one arm against a femme who's better at sniping than she is. Take into account how damaged his own talos was, and things would only get worse from there.

"Damn it. We were doing so good too." Graham grumbled and glared down at Arcee. He took out his beam cannon and aimed it at her head. "Win or lose, I'm taking a souvenir back to General Pisces."

Fighting through the pain, Arcee took out her pistol and brought her arm up, firing a shot right into the barrel of his laser cannon just as Graham fired. The cannon exploded, blasting apart the Eins' hand, and gave Arcee an opportunity to charge at Graham and kicked his talos in the chest. Graham's head slammed against the torn part of his monitor, nearly shattering his helmet on impact and knocking him out. The Eins stumbled back and fell over, hitting the ground and lying still.

"Graham!" Nena exclaimed, before quickly jumping back to avoid a jab from Moonracer's spear.

"What was that about wanting a souvenir?" Arcee spat at the downed talos and reached down to pull open the cockpit. "Let's see if you're as cocky in prison are you are with me."

She went to tear open the cockpit hatch, but a laser beam almost took her head off, shooting over her shoulder to blast a hole into the rock behind her. Arcee jumped back and drew her swords, only to get assaulted by a rain of missiles that exploded around her. Through the flames she saw a large figure trudging through the debris toward the damaged Eins-it was the femme Thornment.

"My, you little birds were certainly trashed, weren't you? Some elite team you were." Thornment said, not very concerned with the state of Team Trinity at the moment. Still, she had to make sure they came out in one piece or else Scorpio was going to bitch and moan for two hours. "If you bozos are HQ are listening, teleported these sorry band of losers from my coordinates."

"What? No, we still need to get these fuckers!" Joseph raged, slashing wildly at Tomahawk. She deflected his sword and kicked his Zwei in the chest before firing her wrist cannons at it.

"Really? Because you've just lost your unit's head, your sister's lost an arm, and your brother is unconscious at the mercy of the enemy. I say your finished…for now." Thornment said. Arcee tried to shoot her, but Thornment lashed out with her heat rods, wrapping one around her arm and another hitting her in the chest. "Don't get up on my account, dear. I won't be long."

"Hya!" Moonracer heaved with all her might and lifted the taller talos over her shoulder to throw into the ground. Pinning the talos down with her foot, she pointed her rifle at its cockpit. "Get out of the machine, now!"

"Eat me, freak." Nena said rudely and flipped the Autobot off, though Moonracer couldn't see it.

Moonracer was about to force the pilot out when the Drei was suddenly engulfed in a beam of green light and slowly phased through her body. Moonracer tried to grab the talos, but it vanished in a flash, with only Nena's mocking laughter to be heard before she was gone.

"What the hell?"

Joseph also felt the familiar sensation of the MASS teleporter taking hold of his body and braced himself as Tomahawk charged at him. She lunged and slashed her blades at his talos' torso, but she passed right through it as the teleportation sequence spirited the damaged mecha away. Tomahawk stumbled a bit and let out an enraged roar as her opponent got away.

Once Thornment saw the Eins vanish in the same manner as the other two talos, she released her hold on Arcee and stepped back. Arcee grunted and glared up at her.

"Don't look at me like that, little girl. You'll get your chance to fight them again. Not sure if it's going to be as easy like today, but if they hold on to that attitude, then you might curb stomp them again." Thornment shrugged. "But I'd worry more about your fleshy friends down below. I hear Pisces is giving them quite the work out."

Arcee lunged at Thornment, who sidestepped her attack with ease.

"If that's all you can do in that state, then I'm done here. Be sure to tell your boy toy I said hello." Thornment laughed and she too vanished via MASS teleportation.

Arcee cursed and fell to her knees, smoking from the wounds she received in her battle. Tomahawk and Moonracer ran over to her, looking slightly better than her.

"Sis, are you alright?" Moonracer asked.

"Physically and emotionally I feel like slag, but this is normal for me." Arcee remarked and looked back at the dig site. "But Gina and the others are in trouble. We need to get to them fast!"

XXXXXX

Pisces crashed through a wall, nearly shattering his left shoulder blade as he hit the ground in a backwards roll and shakily got to his feet. He raised his staff and Sara's blade slid along the length of it, generating sparks in their faces as they broke apart and glared at each other.

Fighting the girl had been more of a challenge than he thought. She was just as fast and strong as him, and even though his staff deflected her attacks, she hit with the force of an angry bull. His arms already felt like jelly from taking those constant hits head on. In contrast, she barely looked tired, though it could just be a front.

Taking a quick look around, Pisces saw that he was standing inside the old lab that they were investigating before he crashed the party. It hardly seemed like anything to be distracted by, though that large purple egg seemed rather interesting.

"You're a tough girl. Good, at least I won't have any excuses when I return to base empty handed." Pisces said.

"You're mistaken if you think you're coming out of this temple alive." Sara said coldly.

She leapt across the room and brought her blades down on his staff. Hooking her arms through his staff, she kicked him in the chest and ripped the staff from his grip. It flew back across the room and she shoved her blades at his face. Pisces quickly leaned back to avoid having his face skewered, but Sara kicked him in the ribs and threw him into the wall by the petrified eggs.

'That brat can hit hard!' Pisces thought. Grunting, he stood up, getting to his knees as Sara pointed her blasters at his face and powered them up. "You won't get me that easy, girl."

Pushing off the wall, he just barely dodged the laser blasts she fired at him and leapt into the air. Grabbing her arms, he spun around and threw her to the ground, holding her down with his larger body. Sara punched his ribs again, this time almost breaking them, and Pisces fought back by trying to tear the blades out of her arms. They struggled on the floor a bit, trying to overpower each other but barely surpassing the other's strength.

" _Pisces, are you there?"_ Scorpio's voice came through his comm.

"I'm busy, Scorpio!" Pisces grunted, hissing as Sara's left blade dug into his cheek, nearly puncturing the interior of his mouth.

" _We're retreating. The battle between the Thrones and the Autobots didn't end so well, so Thornment got them out. I'm taking you out of there, and you better not argue with me this time."_

A laser blast from Sara's right hand seared the flesh on his right shoulder, and nearly took out his ear. "How…long until MASS teleportation?'

" _A little under a minute, so I'd get clear of anyone playing footsies with you at the moment."_

Pisces didn't waste any time in replying, especially when Sara slammed her foot into his chest and sent him crashing into the ancient control panel behind him. He flipped over the console when she charged at him and kicked her aside. He ran over to the clutch of large eggs and stood before them as Sara pointed her blaster at them. She had him dead to rights, but didn't immediately fire for some reason.

"You don't want to hurt the eggs? Oh, that's a big mistake, girl." Pisces grinned. "You should kill me if you have the chance."

Sara knew that, but didn't raise to his bait. She couldn't lower the power on her palm blaster. If shot him down, she'll either damage the eggs behind him in the process, or he'll just dodge and the one living egg behind him will be destroyed. The choice was taken from her as Pisces was engulfed in a column of light and his body began to vanish.

"I'll be seeing you and Ms. Harkins in the future, girl. Then you'll all pay for ruining my life's work!"

Pisces vanished in the teleportation beam, leaving Sara alone in the chamber. Powering down her blaster, she scowled and punched the wall, breaking a hole in it.

"I…failed." Sara growled. She had the shot but didn't take it in fear of harming a bunch of eggs that might not even be alive. She made a mistake….but the next time she saw him, she wasn't going to hesitate again.

XXXXXX

Gina pushed the pile of rocks off her and shakily got to her feet. Her head was ringing from being so close to that blast and she saw burns along her skin where her clothes were nearly burned right off her. Looking up, she saw that Klaudia's halo had destroyed the floor they were standing on and sent them crashing further down into the temple.

"Jinkies, how far does this place go?" Gina muttered.

A pained grunt redirected her attention and she saw her father still fighting Klaudia. Her body was riddled with bloody scorch marks along her flesh from the halos he detonated along her skin, but Klaudia was still fighting…and winning. Theo ducked under her punch and leapt onto her back, wrapping his arms around her neck and squeezing as hard as he could.

The muscles in Klaudia's necked bulged as she strained against Theo's hold. He tried to constrict her throat and suffocate her, but her larger size made that a lot harder. Theo tried his best, but was unable to handle her for long as she grabbed his arm and slammed him into the ground. She lifted him up by his arm and punched him in the chest before slamming him to the ground again with a punch to the face. Theo tried to get up but Klaudia kicked him into the wall, sending him right through it.

Klaudia marched toward him, her eyes glowing as she prepared to vaporize him with her halo effect, but then a cry stopped her.

"Leave him alone!"

Klaudia turned around just in time to see Gina throwing two diamond tipped spears out of the wall behind her. Both spears, moving at speeds even she couldn't avoid, impaled her shoulders and stabbed straight through her collar bone on both sides, flying out of the doorway and into the hall. Blood poured from Klaudia's new wounds and she roared angrily before charging at Gina.

Gina tried to create a halo effect, but Klaudia was already upon her. She swung a large fist into Gina's face, fracturing her cheekbone and punching her straight through the wall and out onto the bridge connecting the two floors to each other. Gina couldn't see out of her left eye as she staggered to her feet and took an uppercut to her chin, throwing her off her feet and into the upper balcony. Klaudia slammed her back down to the floor and glared down at her. Her eyes glowed as she generated a distortion halo around Gina's body, ready to completely vaporize the girl at a moment's notice. At least she'd gain a quick death.

" _Klaudia,"_ It was General Scorpio calling in through her damaged comm. _"Do you read me?"_

"I read you, general Scorpio, just barely. I'm getting some interference down here." Klaudia said.

" _Abort the mission. We're pulling out our forces in the area. Standby for MASS teleportation."_

"Yes, sir." Klaudia said and looked down at the groaning girl lying at her feet. "You're getting off easy today, girl. Learn from this and don't interfere in our affairs again if you value your life."

She wasn't expecting Gina to still be coherent enough to eek out a reply with her face as bloodied as it was. "Not…a chance…"

Klaudia scowled as she was engulfed in the MASS device's displacement field and vanished from the temple entirely. Now that the threat was over and gone, Gina dragged herself over to her father, making sure he was still alive before blacking out from the pain.

XXXXXX

Once she regained consciousness and recovered a bit from her wounds, Gina used what little power she had left to create a platform to bring herself and her father back up to the level where they found the first lab. Penny and Sara were there, tired and hurt, but still alive. But they were horrified by the level of injuries the Harkins couple had taken.

"Penny, are you okay?" Gina said, looking at the girl's broken hand.

"Am I okay? What about you?! I haven't seen so many bruises on you since…" Penny bit her lip as she remembered the terrible injuries Gina had sustained after her first fight with Circuit Breaker.

"We're fine…mostly. My face hurts and I can barely see out of my left eye, but I'm alright. Dad's going to need to take five though." Gina laid her father down on the ground and used her bag to elevate his head. He was still conscious, but his entire body was aching and the bloodied cuts and bruises along his body made it hurt to move. "We barely lasted that long against that freaky woman. If we were normal humans, there wouldn't be much left of us. What about you two?"

"Pisces broke my hand with some super strong staff and Sara fought him off." Penny said. "She chased him away, though."

"No, I let him get away. He was standing in front of the eggs and I didn't want to destroy them to kill him. He used my hesitation to get away." Sara said and bowed her head. "I'm sorry, Gina."

"What matters is that you're okay, Sara. Even if you did destroy the eggs, at least Pisces would be dead. You would've made the right call either way." Gina patted the android on the arm and smiled. Sara returned the smile, small as it was.

As the girls licked their wounds and contacted the Autobots on the surface, they didn't realize that Pisces didn't teleport out of the temple empty-handed. And that oversight would cost them in the future.

XXXXXX

After another week of deliberations to further iron out the conditions of their agreement, the time came for the Autobots to finalize their treaty with the President and formally make their alliance with Osea official. Optimus and Sparkplug met up with the President to sign the treaty, which would mark a turning point in human history.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I don't care if this is going to be classified for an indefinite period of time." President Flagg said as he placed pen to paper. "One president talked about the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Another was connected to that Roswell thing. Now, here I am, signing a treaty with an extraterrestrial agency. I only hope that this is the right thing, and that this will mark a new age in human history."

"I hope so as well, Mr. President." Said Sparkplug as he was handed the pen and carefully signed in both cybertronian and modern English. "Maybe once the war is over, we can make this agreement less militarized down the line."

Sparkplug passed the pen to Optimus, who extended long needle-like extensions from the tip of his forefinger and took hold of the writing instrument.

"One can only hope, my friends." Optimus said, knowing that things were going to change for better or worse at this point forward.

XXXXXX

"See you tomorrow!" Stephanie Bergen, known to her friends and coworkers as Sephie Beller, said to her fellow teachers before calling it a night and heading to her office to get her stuff.

Working as a college professor was hard work, but satisfying. It was the kind of life she could've had if she hadn't been involved with OZ's bull crap. Mid-terms were finally over, and so were the long nights of grading papers and long days of overseeing test sessions. It was rough work, but so long as her students passed, then all the hard work would have been worth it.

Stephanie reached her office and flicked the light on, heading straight to her desk to snatch up her test books. She didn't notice the two people in the room until he spoke up.

"Hello, Stephanie."

Stephanie jumped and spun around to the window, where her old not-so friend, Pisces was sitting. He looked tired and had some bandages on her shoulder and ear, as if he just got out of a fight.

"Pisces." She hissed.

"You remember me! Good, I certainly haven't forgotten you." Pisces said in a mild tone, though his eyes were colder than ice. "How can I forget the woman who provided vital intel to my enemies?"

"Don't act insulted. Did you think I was on your side after all the shit you've done?" She growled at him. Stephanie knew that dying was a very high possibility here, but at least she'll die with some dignity.

"I would have thought that you would've wanted a piece of the glory in helping creating a new breed of humans." Pisces said.

"We created a superhuman weapon of mass destruction. That's not an achievement, that's just terrorism!" She spat.

"Science has no room for morals. You said so yourself."

"Go to hell, Pisces. If you're going to kill me, then go ahead. It won't change anything." She said. Pisces grinned and stood up.

"As much as I want to for allowing the Autobots to destroy three years of hard work, I won't. Especially when you gave a little girl access to the fruits of our hard work." Pisces took a breath to calm himself. "But I may overlook your transgressions if you do something for me."

"I'm not doing a damn thing for you, asshole."

"I wasn't asking, I'm telling you." Pisces said. "You see, I've just discovered something from the ruins of a time long before human history. A truly fascinating discovery I think you'll actually enjoy studying."

Pisces pressed a button on his watch and a large purple egg that looked like a bean bag appeared next to him, making her jump.

"What the hell is that?" Stephanie asked. Pisces smirked and patted the egg, which was still warm to the touch.

"An egg. The only living egg from a time where a different intelligent species walked Terra. And it's still alive."

Stephanie slowly approached the egg, keeping one eye on Pisces as she ran her hand along its smooth surface, noting the faint bloodstain on the little crack in its shell.

"Doctor Bergen, how would you like to help me raise this new addition to our family?"

* * *

 **This took way too long to complete and by rights, I should've completed this before working on revising Awakening and Escalation. Still, I'm done and this** **chapters sets up the stage for the new conflict that's going to take place in book 3. Be sure to check out the official Transformers Titan website on wordpress** **(directions are in my profile). Again, sorry I'm taking so long with book 3. Honestly, I've already written the chapters past ch 16, if you can believe that.** **Typing it down is the hard part.** **Thanks for reading and please leave a review.**


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